I am resolved….

Yep, it’s that time again.

Resolution time.

New year, new opportunity to renew commitments to myself.  Looking back over the past few years, I realize that my resolutions have focused mainly on self: lose weight, get more organized, spend more time in Bible study.  All are good, wholesome (and hard-to-keep) commitments, but ultimately, every resolve revolves around little ol’ me.  And the longer I live, the longer I realize it’s not about me.

Don’t get me wrong.

This year, I do plan to run, stretch and exercise.  A lot.

And study scripture and pour out my heart to God.  Every day.

And organize a lot more stuff.  Starting with my closet.

But more than that, I resolve to…

• be a friendly face to more people I meet.  And to be a better friend to those I already count among casual acquaintances and close confidantes.

• show my faith in action to others.  To live with more integrity. And show more of the grace and mercy I receive when I fail.

• honor my family with more thoughtful menu choices.

• honor God in more ways.  And let Him show me those ways.

• look for opportunities to make our home the most pleasant place for family and friends to gather.  More frequently.

• spend more time enjoying the company of those I love.  Because time is the one thing we can’t make for ourselves or save up for a rainy day.

• and to look harder for the good, in those I meet and in whatever situation I find myself in.  Because whether you look for the good or the bad, you will find it.

I heard this quote recently during a sermon, and it seems a fitting way to sum up my resolutions.

“Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.”
–Jonathan Edwards, 1722

So what are you resolved to do this year?  Do share…it increases your odds of following through on them, you know!

Happy 2013,
Terry

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Resolutions checkup, month 5

By the time June rolls around, spring has given way to summer’s heat and January is just a distant memory.  Cold weather?  I can barely remember what it is to wear shoes and sweaters.  By now, resolutions often ring a faint bell but they are pretty hazy this far away.

This year, I do remember my resolutions and I can still recite them at the drop of a hat, thanks to this monthly check-in.  I am now at the point of accepting some of them as part of my routine, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are ingrained or permanent habits.  (That old saw about it taking 21 days to make or break habits is bogus – it takes far longer to truly make something stick.)

1.  Read my Bible daily.  First half of the month, right on track. Second half, not so much.  I won’t whine or make excuses, it is what it is. But there is now this frequent niggle and nudge inside me to pick it up and read it more days than not.  I’m encouraging that niggly nudge to grow and get stronger.  It’s the same feeling that can get me up and going to the gym before daybreak.

2. Exercise.  At the risk of repeating myself, see #1 above.  First half of the month, definitely on track. Second half, other things took priority.  And I don’t kid myself that gardening burns as many calories as the gym.  I may sweat buckets while dragging the hose and digging weeds, but the exertion level is not the same.  However, I’m okay with my results for the past four weeks; the things that overshadowed my regular routine were important and urgent and are now completed, so no more excuses.  And my weight dropped beneath 120 earlier this month.  It still hovers and flutters around that mark, but we’re headed in the right direction.  Anyone trying to lose a few pounds, take heart.  Changing the way you eat and exercise are key – they don’t always yield dramatic results, but be patient and let them work their slow magic.

3. Prayer life.  It’s not without ceasing but it is regular and more frequent than daily.  I pray for health of friends and family and for many who are near-and-dear to my nearest-and-dearest.  I try to stop and appreciate and give thanks for the abundance of good things that happen every day.  From small mercies to big blessings, all good things come from God and I hope I never forget that or fail to give Him thanks.

4. Cultivating the fruits of the spirit. This one is still an enigma.  I know I set it as a resolution but how can I measure this?  It isn’t like cultivating plants in my garden.  I can see how my plants grow; I can see them mature and bloom and bear fruit.  I know there must be a way to similarly see and measure this growth but in the meantime, I keep praying and studying know the more I do that, the more the fruit will grow.

I hope this month finds everyone thinking back on whatever you resolved to stop or start roughly 150 days ago.  Whether you’re struggling to keep those promises, or struggling to even remember what you promised yourself, there’s no time like today to get started.  And think how great it will feel in December to know you made good on your resolutions in 2012 and see the results of your efforts.

Happy resolving,
Terry

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New Year’s Resolutions: Month Four

How would I characterize my efforts to focus on my New Year’s resolutions last month? Well, much like those announcements that occasionally come up when you’re watching television. You know,

“We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this special broadcast.”

In my case, the “special broadcast” was spring.  Last month was a blur. I could make excuses longer than my list of resolutions but I’ll sum it up like this. Life, as in plants and Bible curriculum writing, were at the top of my to-do list in my spare time, along with keeping up with my mother-in-law’s health issues.  They all cut in line ahead of my resolutions.

Reading my Bible?  I haven’t read ANYthing outside of Bible class and worship.  No magazines, no books, not even the back of a cereal carton  And unfortunately, no serious individual Bible study time.

Exercise?  The month was a roller-coaster of hit-or-miss at best.  One week, I logged a whopping 20 miles on the elliptical AND I’ve been up and down on my knees countless times to dig in countless plants.  My bum knee hasn’t forgiven me and probably won’t for a while. At least yoga is still my friend.  I’m not stepping on the scale for a few more weeks – I don’t need it to tell me what I already know.

Prayer life and cultivating the fruits of the spirit?  Well, if there’s anything positive that comes from being down on your knees pulling weeds and planting, it’s that you have a lot of time to meditate and pray so I took advantage of the situation to do both.

I did manage to keep my desk clean, but only because I have temporarily relocated to Mr. Official’s man-cave to work for a few weeks since I need repeated access to the printer and my aforementioned knee has made it clear it doesn’t want to traipse up and down the stairs every time I print off something.  So when we’re up, we’re up – and when we’re down, we’re down.

The planting frenzy is over. The lesson-writing and printing is almost over.  Memaw’s health is more even-keel, at least right now. This month *should* be less intense.  (Watering and weeding will take up some of my free time, but there isn’t the all-consuming pressure of having flats of plants starting pitifully at you, knowing their life is literally in your hands.)

How are your resolutions coming?  Are they still going strong, or fading slowly from view?  The best news is we don’t have to wait for next January 1 to resolve to change something in our lives.  There’s nothing magical about making a resolution on that date; as you can see from my monthly checkups, there’s nothing that will make a resolution take root except your own willingness to keep pushing yourself to make it happen.

Happy resolving,

Terry

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Month three: So how ’bout them resolutions?

And here we are, 90 days into 2012. Are you still hanging tight with your resolutions or are you struggling to recall what they were?  (We’ve all experienced that before.)  This year, I’m sticking to my guns better than most years, but as you’ll see there have been some bumps along the way this month.

1. Cultivate a daily prayer life.
My goal last month was to make prayer and Bible reading a priority first thing in the morning.  I’m 1 for 2:  prayer yes, Bible reading, no.

2. Read the Bible through in 2012.
There’s no way to gloss over the fact I’ve completely fallen behind on this.  Truth be told, I haven’t read ANYTHING in the last month – no magazines, no books, no nothing, except online stuff that is directly related to work and blogging.  And every day I fall further behind, I cringe because it means I’m two readings behind.  So instead of trying some marathon make-up reading, I’m dropping back to one reading  a day, and trying Seinfeld’s “don’t-break-the-chain” starting today.  Here’s hoping it works. Stay tuned, update in 30 days.

3. Exercise at least 4 days a week and drop the last 15 pounds I want to lose.
A success!

• Week one, I managed yoga, pilates and two hours of weights;
• Week two consisted of a 3-mile run, yoga, pilates and an hour of weights;
  
• Week three two four-mile runs and yoga and pilates;
  
• This week, three days of running (12 miles total), plus yoga and pilates.
  

My goal weight is 110. I’m back to 121, which doesn’t sound like much of a stride, until I explain my weight bounced up to 125 early this month, a delayed reaction to last month’s overindulgence in sweets; it prompted an introspective look into my psyche a few days ago.  The running helps; I just need to figure out how to still squeeze in an hour or two of weights a week while maintaining the early morning runs.

4. Get my desk organized and keep it that way.
A qualified success.  I’m still wrestling with the way I deal with incoming mail, but I have a basket to hold it now until I cull out the bills and toss the junk, pretty much once every week to ten days.  My blotter has stayed visible all month.  Woot!

5. Cultivate the fruit of the spirit in my life.
This remains the hardest goal to measure progress against, but I find myself dwelling more on my daily walk with God and looking for ways to encourage others.  I’m thinking that counts as progress.

So how are your resolutions doing? I came across this photo not too long ago, and it rang true:

If you need to start over in April, that’s okay – just commit to making it the last time to start over.

Happy resolving,

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Second month checkup on those baby resolutions

So, how’s everyone doing?  It seems this is where daily routines start to become habits, but some things are just plain hard to put into regular practice and to be honest, I’ve stumbled in a few areas.

1. Cultivate a daily prayer life.
My goal is to pour a cup of coffee, do my daily Bible reading and then spend time in prayer.  It’s putting “first things first.”  Is it a habit yet?  Nope. In fact, right now I’m a few days behind on my reading. Again. But I’m trying!

2. Read the Bible through in 2012.
Still (pretty much) on track. This month, I worked my way through Job, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and most of Isaiah, plus Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and Galatians.  Both of these readings remind me that some things never change.

3. Exercise at least 4 days a week and drop the last 15 pounds I want to lose. 

• Week one,  I managed a 3-mile run and yoga, and two brisk walks with the dog.
• Week two was back to Pilates, plus some elliptical (knee is still iffy) and an hour of Body Pump on Friday
  
• Weeks three and four both consisted of two hours of weights, plus an hour each Pilates and yoga
  
• This week has seen me back in the gym early for elliptical work, then body pump and Pilates.
  

My goal weight is 110.   I’m at 123, which is up a couple of pounds from last month.  February is Girl Scout cookies month.  What else can I say?

4. Get my desk organized and keep it that way. 

Recipes are in my notebook; projects are in folders.  Tax docs go to Mr. Official and college info to Swimmer Girl.  We’re going to ignore the microbursts of mail sitting on the island and my sewing table (next to the desk.)  Organization is sadly still not a habit but it is getting better.

5. Cultivate the fruit of the spirit in my life.

I stumbled over a video imbedded in this entry at How to Live Richly on a Budget.  It’s 12 (highly entertaining) minutes so grab a cup of coffee and settle in.  The upshot is in the last couple of minutes where he describes a scientific “discovery” for success by doing the following daily activities for 21 days in a row.

• find 3 new things you’re grateful for,
• journal about something positive that occurred in the last 24 hours,
• regular exercise,
• meditate (an antidote to multi-tasking), and
• commit a random, conscious act of kindness

Science and scripture are in sync; good things come from kindness, self-control, patience, love, etc.  So what would you like to change in your life? There’s no reason to wait for next January – I hope you’ll commit to it today.  And tell others what you’re trying to do so they – and we – can encourage you!

Happy resolving,

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A resolution checkup

January flew by!  How ’bout those resolutions? I think the first few days are the easiest, but then the next few weeks are the hardest.  For better or worse, here’s where I am:

1. Cultivate a daily prayer life.

New journal has many names and sermon notes. Even so, getting into a daily routine is an area for improvement.

2. Read the Bible through in 2012.

On track – I’m even doubling up on my readings (more later.)

If you’re an attention-challenged Bible reader like me, try the One Year Bible (you can even get it online for free.)  Each day you get a little Old, a little New, a few Psalms and Proverbs.   I spent most of January dazed and confused in Chronicles, but the familiarity of Acts and Romans kept me going.

3. Exercise at least 4 days a week and drop the last 15 pounds I want to lose. 

• Week one,  I managed five workouts:  elliptical, weights and yoga.
• Weeks two and three were a bust: a pinched nerve in my back kept me incapacitated.
• Week four  success!  Elliptical, Pilates, yoga and a 5K walk/run.

My initial weight was (gulp)  almost 125 pounds.  I should weigh 105-118 pounds and I’m determined to get back to somewhere around 110 and maintain it. Currently I’m hovering at 120-121.

4. Get my desk organized and keep it that way. 

During the first week, I cleared my desk off;  today my  2012 desk calendar is still visible! My desk is the catch-all for mail and miscellany.  Any suggestions on dealing with the daily deluge?  Please share – my desk and I could use all the help we can get

5. Cultivate the fruit of the spirit in my life.

How do you measure the love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in your life?  Something tells me this fruit is a really slow grower.

What would you like to change this year? The perfect time to start is (always!) now – share your resolutions so we can encourage each other!

Happy Monday,

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Time for renewing my resolve

To borrow from Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” the time has come.

(Do you remember the poem, recited by Tweedledee and Tweedledum?  This is the one stanza that always sticks in my mind…)

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,

“To talk of many things: 

Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax– 

Of cabbages–and kings– 

And why the sea is boiling hot– 

And whether pigs have wings.” 

Because we measure time the way we do, we are preparing to greet a new year at midnight.  And with the new year comes a fresh, new start, at least to our way of thinking.

For some reason, each year we choose this particular point in time and grant it the power to change us.   There’s nothing magical about this spot on the calendar – a resolution can be made at any time, and should be made sooner than later when we see something in ourselves that could stand to be improved upon.

But most of us will resolve – either today or tomorrow – to stop some bad habits and/or develop new, better habits.

Gotta love Calvin and Hobbes…

Calvin’s view of himself aside, most of us long to improve some area of our life – usually to become healthier and happier in some meaningful, tangible way. But the statistics are discouraging:  the vast majority of resolutions made each year are doomed to fail – my past resolutions are certainly part of the disappointing majority.

Even the word “resolution” has some interesting and paradoxical meanings:  on one hand, it is the quality of being resolute or firm,  on the other it is the act of dissolving or separating something into its basic parts.  At its root is the Latin word resolvere, meaning to dissolve. So which will it be:  will my resolutions remain firm and determined, or will they dissolve like salt in a glass of water? 

Last year, I had the bright and novel idea (don’t snicker) of making monthly resolutions instead of annual ones.  I didn’t put it into practice – the months slipped by, and my good intentions sailed on the wind just like my past annual resolutions.

Suddenly, here I am again, at the threshold of another new year, fresh and bright with all its potential and promise.

My personal commitments for 2012 are much like those of past years – they represent areas of my life where I want to grow and mature.  “They” (those wise, anonymous people) say you shouldn’t make more than  one large or three small resolutions.  I say I have five fingers on one hand – surely I can remember – and work on – that many goals, so here are my 2012 resolutions:

1. Make time each day to cultivate a deeper prayer life (a new prayer journal is due)
2. Read the Bible through this year – no ifs, ands or buts.
3. Exercise at least 4 days a week and drop the last 15 pounds I want to lose.
4. Get my desk re-organized – and maintain it throughout the year.
5. Cultivate the fruit of the spirit in my life:  more love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

That last one is less concrete and measurable, but my plan is to share each month a recap of my struggles and successes in these areas here with you, and I hope you’ll encourage me with your comments and input. What are you committed to changing this year?

I hope that each of us will take a few moments to ponder our progress over the past year and make a solemn promise to ourselves – even if it is basic, simple and small – to become better in some way in 2012.  Let’s be resolute and committed, so we can achieve our goals, however lofty or small.  And if/when we find ourselves standing at the brink of 2013, we can look back on this year and see where we made some positive strides. 

Happy new year,
 

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