I've never believed in New Year's Resolutions.
Call me crazy, a skeptic, and any other number of things, but I have never understood waiting until January 1st to make the changes that you've known for months needed to be made in your life. I realize now that this is not what New Year's Resolutions are actually about. A resolution, by definition is to make "a firm decision to do or not to do something". So, if New Year's Resolutions were actual resolutions, then why do most of them fail by Valentine's Day?
Yesterday I saw a message repeatedly...so many times that I actually posted it myself, but with a caveat.
Everyone who posted this message did so for the same reason that they posted 11/11/11 and 2/2/22...because they wanted to highlight that day as special, but it's not. None of our days are particularly special in the way that they our presented in the above message. Every moment given to us by God is just as special as the last. So instead of pumping up 12/31/23 or 123123, I admonished my followers to remember that we will never see the same day twice.
No matter how long we live, we will never see today again,
and this moment will never return to us.
Every year people make New Year's Resolutions and Vision Boards and 6, 12, 24, 52 weeks later, they find themselves right back where they started, not because there's anything wrong with resolutions or vision boards, but because there is no true resolve to make good on promises to ourselves. We are in a constant hurry to do more, not realizing that it makes us less and less effective. Our issue is one of sight, NOT vision.
When Vision Boards and New Year's Resolutions are made, there's a focus on the end goal - where I want to be. What I want to do. How I want to look or feel...but none of these things are instant. You can't go from the mailroom to the Board room in one fell swoop, the same way that you can't lose 100 pounds in 6 weeks. Change requires CHANGE - a clear target and consistent, decisive actions necessary to hitting that target.
Habakkuk 2:2 is arguably one of the most quoted scriptures, but it has no context without Habakkuk 2:3. Everyone wants to hold on to, "write the vision and make it plain", but that is only the beginning of instruction. The scripture says,
Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
We want the fruition of the vision, but we don't want to do the RUNNING necessary to make it happen! A New Year's Resolution with or without a Vision Board is nothing without ACTION STEPS!
The Ten Commandments supported God's vision for the world. They were written on tablets and they have to be practiced every day, so why wouldn't there be everyday actions that connect to your resolutions and the attainment of your vision?
Our problem is that we want instant gratification. If something doesn't happen quickly, we lose sight of the vision and start focusing on what's directly in front of us. We forget that the scripture says that though it tarries (may take a while), WAIT FOR IT; because it will SURELY come!!
NOT MAYBE, SURELY
but we have to do the work!
God promised that He would withhold from us no good thing, so if what you are resolving to do is within the Will of God, then why wouldn't it come to fruition? Do you honestly think that you have the power to change the Lord's Will?
This year, why don't we skip the resolutions and put together a real plan? Instead of putting our faith in and focus on what we see immediately before us, let's commit ourselves to showing up for ourselves EVERYDAY (not just January 1 - February 14) and do the work necessary to remembering our resolutions.
Follow Me as I Follow God
@RevealingRuth
