Resolutions

A friend of mine put up a Facebook status right before New Years that read, "I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions. Why do we wait to make changes once a year? Jesus is our personal savior and it's always the right time to turn towards Him." While I appreciated his sentiment, I'm not entirely sure I agree with my friend. You see, it's like Easter. I should focus on Christ's Resurrection year round, but sometimes I get bogged down by the things around me and I push the miraculous means of my salvation to the back of my mind. Things like Lent, Palm Sunday, and Easter Sunday draw me back to the truth of my salvation. I think New Years is the same way. Yes, I can make life changes whenever I want because Christ is always with me, but that doesn't mean I don't need a reminder every once in a while. Life can get messy and cluttered; it's easy to lose sight of the little things.

All that to say, I want to make my resolutions public so I can be better held accountable. There are some personal goals that will remain between me and a few close friends, but a couple are best served being made public.

1. I want to be better about expressing what I'm really feeling. I am a people pleaser and I will often hide my true feelings because I don't want to let people know they've hurt me or let me down. I will also refrain from giving ideas if I think it will upset someone.

What it looks like: Being proactive. Sharing my feelings and opinions without being forced. One step further, seeking out those important friends and mentors in my life and sharing of my own accord. A sub-goal under this is to blog more. I've found blogging is a great way to process what I'm feeling. The written word has a power all its own. I don't think I want to set a strict limit, but I was thinking somewhere around 3-4 days a week, depending on what is going on in life.

2. I want to become more disciplined.

This is a very broad goal, but I do have several specific areas in mind.

A. I want to get better about spending alone time with the Lord.
B. I want to have healthier habits.
      i. Going to bed at a respectable time.
      ii. Eating healthier.
      iii. Being more active.
      iv. Seeking out friends when I'm feeling sad or lonely.
C. Being on time to things rather than "only a few minutes late."
D. Stop procrastinating on things for my job or at school.
E. Finally graduate.
F. Being intentional about seeking out God's will for my future rather than sitting back and expecting it to come to me.

So those are my resolutions for this year. Please call me out on them if you feel I'm failing.

I've talked about Kate Cook before and I will likely do so again. She was my NSO leader freshman year and we've since become friends. She's one of the wisest and most mature people I've ever met and she's only a year older than me. I don't know how she does it. Anyway, I was talking to her about the recent going-ons in my life and she gave me a lot of good advice. I don't have time to go into all of it, but one line in her letter stuck out to me so I'd like to share it with all of you. She was speaking specifically to relationships, but I feel like it can be applied to really any area of life. This, too, has become one of my goals for this year:

"Be the kind of man who deserves a woman you couldn't imagine deserving and she'll find you. God will bring her to you."