New Year Revolutions??

The new year brings about many things. But one that seems to come around every year (at least for the first month or two) are New Year Resolutions. Why do we set high goals for ourselves and then 6 weeks later completely give them up?

For New Years this year I took our group of students to a "Lock-in and Rock-out." It was a get together for the entire community and the sponsoring group brought in the band "Hardie Avenue." During one of the breaks the lead singer shared his testimony and a few steps to follow to live a life of Christian faith. This post is loosely based around the testimony that he gave. I think those steps can easily be applied to life as we set and hope to achieve our new year resolutions as well as enhance our faith in Christ.

Small Steps
Why do we have to set goals that are so high we will never achieve them? When you have a baby, you don't go out and celebrate by buying him a huge steak. You don't take them out to run a marathon the day they start to walk. Why are our lives any different? You have to be realistic. One example I have seen in my time as a student minister is a young person accepting what Christ did for them on the cross and starting a new life in Him. That same student is filled with the fire and excitement of Christ and they think they are going to change the world and bring revival to all their friends, so they set out to try a week after coming to know Christ. Then one of their friends rejects their new found relationship, and the student's faith is shaken a little. The next day they go to someone else and share what Christ has done for him, that person just ignores the student, and their faith is shaken a little more. Finally a week later then have decided they are going to tell their parents the wonderful news and try to convince them to start going to church. The student is just dismissed by their unbelieving parents. The spiritual high the student was on is suddenly gone. They tried to go out and conquer mountains right after beginning to walk. Our Christian faith has to grow and be developed. I'm not saying what the student did was wrong, I wish more students would be bold in sharing their faith, I am saying that we have to take small steps. Same goes for our resolutions, don't say you're going to work out every single day this year. Or say you're going to lose 30 lbs this year. Start small with I'm going to work our twice a week at least. Or I'm going to lose 5 lbs this month. You will find yourself more motivated by the smaller short term goals than the big resolutions.

Pay attention

One of the biggest regrets in March is that people forgot what their new years resolutions were. We set them in January and then in February we are focused on one maybe two that we are still keeping and by March most have completely forgotten the resolutions they made. This is another that relates directly to our Christian faith. In order for our faith to grow we need to have goals. One of mine includes sharing my testimony with a certain number of people a month. The number changes based on how well I did the previous month. A goal that me and my wife have set this year is to read our Bible more together. Talking about the Bible with other people goes a long way in helping you grow. As far as new year resolutions go, having someone remind you and keep you accountable can go a long way in helping you not only remember but achieve your goals. Another suggestion that I have found is extremely helpful to many students is write them down and post them somewhere you see them daily. The more you think about your goals and resolutions the more likely you are to uphold them.

Small Achievements

I am the type of person who gets motivated by completing something. I might even say I have OCD (Obsessive Completion Disorder). Over the Christmas break my wife and her sister started a 2000 piece puzzle in our living room. They got the outside edges done before the break was over. After her sister left we could have just picked it up and put it away, but something in my mind told me we needed to complete it. Well a week later we finally finished it and I felt successful. It really helps me to set short term goals that I know I can reach to build motivation for the harder, bigger goals. As I mentioned before I like to set weekly or monthly goals to help achieve the larger resolutions.

Don't look back, keep looking forward

One thing that Yuri, the lead singer, said that stuck with me was, "Your past is your past, do not cling to it overcome it." We all have a past. There was a point sometime in our life when we did not know Christ. When we set resolutions one major reason we do not keep them is discouragement. We set goals to work out twice a week, and a week goes by and we didn't work out at all. The next week it becomes a little bit harder because that perfect record has a scratch on it. If we set a resolution to not eat any ice cream in 2014 (as if anybody would even try), then on January 5th we give into our old ways and have a bowl of ice cream, our resolution and confidence are both on edge. However, we need to view each day as a new day and not look backwards towards our failures. In our Christian life Christ came to forgive our sins. He died for all the things you did yesterday (and the things you will do today and tomorrow) so put them in your past and become a new person.

So basically I think new year resolutions can be a good thing as look as we also apply those principles to our Christian faith year round.

God Bless Y'all,
Tyler
 
 P.S - I set a goal for myself to write at least one post a week, and here I am on the last day of the first week. Gonna be a good year!