The New Year is coming. Can you hear it crashing down the halls of time? It's almost here and.... eeek! I don't have any resolutions! I just can't bring myself to make one more silly, self defeating proclamation that is doomed to colossal failure.
My darling husband is super organized, disciplined and strong. When he makes a resolution, you can bet he will accomplish it to the best of his ability. I envy his resolve. What makes him so capable of follow through and me such a woose?
Well my dear Pastor's wife. if you are more like my husband then you may sit back with your cup of tea or coffee and grin at those of us less fortunate. The rest of you, come with me! We have something to talk about.
Here's what I think is going on with this whole New Year's resolution problem.
Those of us with thriving right brains are filled with ideas and plans and pictures of impossible things coming true. We are dreamers who believed in Santa and the tooth fairy and still love Tinker Bell and hope she's real. Our hearts love deeply and break completely and yet we do not give up hoping for better days. When plans fall through we see the bright side and try to cheer everyone up to our positive outlook. When dark days come, we crumble and cry and then put the pieces back together and stand up to fight another day. This is who we are.
Our darling super organized, disciplined, left brainers look at us in awe and wonder how we do it. Then they look at the messes left on the kitchen table, bathroom floor and clothes closets and shake their heads at our awesome ability to function in chaos!
If you get that then you'll really get this. God made us this way! With all our hair-brained ideas and crazy imperfections. He just adores us! In the midst of it all, He gets us.
Her'es a few of my ladies and I just being silly and enjoying being ourselves.
So how does this answer the resolution issue?
Right now left brainers are sipping their coffee going,, "Here come the excuses!"
Nope, no excuses for botched plans and lack of follow through. I take full responsibility for my actions. But I refuse to allow my failures to bring on a bout of self-beating.
I think we must come to a full stop for just a second and ask ourselves three important questions.
#1. What would God have me pursue this year?
#2. How can I accomplish that?
#3. Who or what do I need to help me?
Deep breath, Drink your tea and think through those three questions before moving on.
This is what it looks like for me: Instead of saying, "I'm going to lose 20 pounds!" or "I'm going to stop loosing my temper with my children!"
I plan on saying things like, "I believe God would have me pursue deeper relationships with my children. I will accomplish this by establishing a new routine that includes one on one time. I will need the help of my husband to set up a realistic and workable schedule that works for all of us."
Or, "I believe God would have me pursue better health this year. I will accomplish this by establishing a plan for regular exercise. I will need the help of my friends who love to exercise. I will ask them to walk beside me for a few months until my new routine is established."
Okay, I can already hear you Righties saying, "But, but, but,,, what if I fail? What if my husband won't help? What if don't have any fanatic exercise friends?"
Then you are going to need to ask God to make it CLEAR to you.
Then you are going to give yourself GRACE! That same grace you so readily give others needs to fall to yourself as well.
I also suggest you get CREATIVE!
So, the third week of the exercise program, two of your kids get sick with the flu. You can't go out for a walk as usual, so what do you do? Maybe you do nothing and when everyone is well, you pick yourself up and stand to fight another day? You do it all the time with other areas of your life. Why not these things as well? Maybe you pull out that crusty Jane Fonda DVD and put on your flash dance attire and laugh at yourself as you exercise.
Our personalities are prone to over reaching and making impossible goals. So, keep your resolutions manageable. The dreamer inside of us is quick to give up if things get scary or loose their sparkle. So, create goals that have fun built in but be ready to knuckle down and do the hard work as well.
So what will it be this year? How will you pursue God's will for you?
How about one little step at a time with a whole lot of happy thoughts and a little Pixie dust?
Oh dear, there I go again! Let's just take one little step, plan on a bit of fun and hold onto the hope that Tinker Bell is real!
Are you with me? Good. Let's FLY!
-Under the same wing,
Joleen
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