It’s a New Year

Isaiah 43:19 - See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

It was over too quickly.
The presents were opened.
The dinner was great even if you ate too much.
The relatives have now returned home.
The tree is gone.
The decorations have been stored away.
The kids have gone back to school.
And you open up your checkbook to pay a bill and you write down the new year’s date.
 
The New Year. It stands in front of you, as you wait to see what memories will be made, what challenges you will face and how will you live your life.
 
Many people make New Year’s resolutions.
 
Take out the scale and say, “Oh, my!”
Put on your favorite pants and realize you have to move the belt notch one over.
 
What will you do with this New Year? Will you take a look at the weight you gained over the holidays and find the determination to exercise and eat healthier? Or do you decide to forget about it and just buy a new pair of pants.
 
So you take out a piece of paper and a pen and decide that this year will be different. You will write your New Year’s resolutions and reach them. But didn’t we say that last year?
 
The story seems to be the same: Buy a new membership at the gym. Go shopping for groceries trying to pick up foods that are healthy. Or maybe it’s a bad habit that you tried to break last year and weren’t able to do so.
 
There can be a lot of pressure at the beginning of a new year, as you wonder just how you’ll make it through all of those New Year’s resolutions and carry them out.
 
But something really does seem to stand in your way – your health.
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I think that it can be very hard for a person with chronic health conditions to start a New Year wanting to meet those New Year’s resolutions. But it’s not impossible to reach them if we make sure that our resolutions are those that we can feasibly reach.
 
So what can we do to take the challenge, and in spite of our obstacles lean forward at the starting line ready for the gun to go off and run towards that finish line? Find some ideas on mercola.com in their article, “7 Psychological Tips to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick,” such as breaking your goal into manageable parts. You’ll also find twelve best health goals for a healthier year.
 
God can do a new thing in us, as the Bible verse above says, and it can spring up like streams in a desert. Give it a try. When you make those resolutions, pray and ask God if they are goals he’d like you to reach. If they are, lean into them and race toward finish line.

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