This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared on Monday, Jan 4, 2021
Well, 2021 is off and running, literally for me. That means that we are all getting started on our New Years Resolutions. I have set all the normal resolutions. I am going to actually get in shape, I am going to eat better, I am going to bed earlier, and I am going to read more books this year. These are probably all the same kind of things that you are planning to do. I know this because if you are anything like me, most of these items I could have recycled from any of my last 10 New Year’s resolution lists.
So, in addition to all this normal stuff, I decided to go in a different direction in making resolutions to help me with some of these nagging problems. Over the last 2 weeks, I have closely examined the resolutions I have kept and not kept to various degrees over the past few years and realized that the problems I run into isn’t will power or desire, the problem I run into is the resolutions are not focused. You see, exchanging poor habits for better ones is a marathon not a sprint and success usually comes from small changes not huge ones.
Let me give you an example. I made a resolution that my phone will not go into the room where I sleep. Every night, my phone is turned off before I go to bed. This helps me in a couple of ways. First, I am not up playing Among Us until too late at night. I am also not scrolling Google for articles to read. I don’t have Wi-Fi at my house, so I have my Kindle with me so I can read books before going to sleep.
Boom, one resolution helps me accomplish two old resolutions. Just by not allowing my phone near my bed or even in my bedroom at any time, in 4 days, I have already finished one book in 2020. Granted the book was only 42 pages and I read it in one sitting, but hey, a book is a book!
I also have resolved to not turn my phone on in the mornings until my workout is completed. Whatever the workout of the day is, I don’t turn on the phone until workout and morning devotions are done. That helps me compete them as a priority rather than something I am squeezing in around playing on my phone.
As you are getting back to real life after the Christmas season, I hope that you will take this opportunity to make specific and small adjustments to your life so that you can accomplish big goals. Resolving just to lose weight with no nutrition and workout plan is destined to not work. You need a specific list of activities that you absolutely will do as well as a specific list of what you will no longer do. Many times, if you resolve to eat the salad, the ice cream may not sound as appealing. That is a two for one.
On the other hand, if you go too extreme on your resolutions, then you will not be able to keep them. To swear off ice cream for 2020 is not good nor is it realistic. To limit ice cream to once a week rather than once every 5 hours would be a much better strategy.
2020 was definitely a year of reflection. Since so many of us were thrown out of our normal and we are still searching for what that normal will be, we had a chance to evaluate our lives. That is when I realized that the kind of changes that lead to actual lasing transformation are small and manageable and not sweeping and extreme.
I pray that your 2021 is off to a great start and does nothing but get better every day. I also pray that you are making the adjustments that you need to make in order to live into a better future. And keep in mind that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you want something better in 2021, then you will have to make the adjustments. Good luck and God speed!