Why We Can't or Don't Keep Resolutions

A stack of magazines has taken over our kitchen table, full of recipes and good intentions left unread and untried.  They had been squirreled away in a cabinet and put aside in a basket in the corner for a time when I would get around to perusing them.  I really meant to read them, but as I pulled them out in an effort to unclutter, I noticed the headline of one magazine, "Eat better in 2011."   Humble pie for me!

My resolutions had dissolved into a stack of not done and untouched, heading for the recycle bin.

There is something about a fresh new year before me that causes me to take stock in how I have spent the past year and what I strive to do in the next twelve months.  "I will do better next year," I promise no one but myself.  For the most part, I have found that I tend to put the "doing" first, when a focus on the "being" holds far more significance.  It is the core of my being that drives the doing.

The reason our resolutions fail -- or why we fail to keep them -- may be their substance.  What are we seeking?    Perfection in the eyes of the world?   Things to check off a list?

When I read the following resolutions, I was both humbled by the shallowness of my own goals and inspired to dig deeper.  The man who wrote them in 1722 - 23, then re-read them weekly for the next 35 years, to remind himself that his relationship with God is what makes the difference in a life.  It is not so much a list of what to do, as a bigger vision of what God sees.  Jonathan Edwards did not consider himself as a theologian, but a simple man seeking God.

May God bless you in the new year as you seek Him.

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/the-resolutions-of-jonathan-edwards