New Years Resolutions: are they scriptural?

Amazing isn't it, how we can get stuck in a rut?

We repeat the same old habits over and over again, thinking somehow, I suppose, that if we do it often enough things will change. Like for instance, making a list of new year resolutions that we know deep down inside we will never carry out. In that regard, someone has said that a definition of insanity is when someone repeats the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If that is true, then I sure do know a whole lot of insane people (including myself, at times, too!)

I can't tell you the number of exercise machines, treadmills, weights, thigh masters, "Amazingly Wonderful Abdominal Crushers" and the likes that I have seen down through the years stashed away in garages, backyards, and under beds cluttering up space. As, a matter of fact, there's a booming industry out there taking care of a whole lot more of that stuff—it's called the storage business, and every neighborhood has one of them.

I imagine that if the average Christian put the same amount of money into supporting missions as they do to buy junk to fulfill some whimsical grandiose dream of having abs like some Olympic athlete we could fund most of if not all of our mission’s budgets and with money left over. I am serious. And, you and I both know it is true.

So, I don't believe in making New Year's resolutions that I know for the most part I am going to break sooner or later (usually, sooner) anyway.

My firm belief is that if a person sets their mind to it, there is no better time than right now, forget waiting until the New Year or tomorrow to make the resolution. Do it now!

That's goes for just about everything is that is worthwhile in life, too. Don't wait for Valentine's Day to tell you wife or husband that you love them, do it now! Who knows what will happen between now and Valentine's Day? One of you may be singing bass or alto in that celestial choir along with Gabriel and the angels by then. Who knows?

That goes for your children, too. I can't tell you the number of times that I have had some young man tell me that they do not remember a time that their dad said, "I love you." Sad, but true. The same goes for girls, too. 

In college I teach a Psychology of Religion course which is intended to introduce the students to the interrelationship between the human mind and religion—all religions, yes, and all types of thought processes, the wonky as well as the sane.  I must tell you that I am utterly amazed at the number of young people who feel as if God is harsh, vengeful and just down right unfair. Why? Well, in many of, not most cases, it is because they identify God with their dad or mom.
The sad fact is that the trail of troubled youth is strewn with the disappointments of never hearing, or hardly ever hearing a parent say unconditionally, "I love you."

Friends, I don't care how mad we get at one of our children, or our spouse there should never be any doubt left that we don't love them.

One of  my little grandsons was visiting recently—and let’s face it, grandpa is not as patient as he used to be, so I have got to confess his rambunctious behavior just about got the best of me, so I scolded him for being a kid. What else can I say since in all reality he was just acting out his age? None-the-less, after he settled down, I reached over and drew him near me and gave him a good grandfatherly hug. Later on someone said that he had remarked, “You know, Poppy sure can get mad at me, but then he loves me.”

Of course, hearing that made me happy. Not because I did the saintly thing, but because that is precisely what he needed. Interestingly enough the Bible says that he “loved us, then washed us.” (Rev. 1:5 KJV) From that I understand that His love is stronger than our mistakes. Normally, we want to do just the opposite. We want to get kids or whomever all cleaned up morally and otherwise before we love on them. Not so with Jesus. He loves us dirt and all; then he washes us.

Think of the marriage that could be saved if only the husband or wife would say, “Honey, you’re not perfect, but I love you just the same.”

Jesus, not once, left the impression with any of his disciples that he did not love them. Peter denied him, yet he knew that Jesus still loved him. Thomas doubted that Jesus had really risen from the dead, but I can't find anywhere that even old "Doubting Thomas" ever doubted for one minute that Jesus loved him. Of course, I could go on and on, but you get the picture: Jesus loves us, and he lets us know it, too! And, for that I am thankful.

Yours for the journey,