My New Year’s resolutions:
-Become co-dependent on a significant other and base my entire life around that person’s dreams and aspirations while completely ignoring my own
-Develop a fear of doing or saying anything that will cause others to not like me, even though they will probably not always be in my life
-Do not seek God in fervent prayer to figure out and pursue the purpose that He has called me to here on the earth
-Do not invest time and love into the most important friends and family in my life
-Let other people’s negative opinions or words have power over my emotions
-Do not leave the house or travel, because there are more important things to do than exploring what the world has to offer
-Do not wear the tighter clothes that make me feel prettier, because someone will go on a legalistic “modesty rant”
-Constantly compare myself to others because I don’t really know my own self-worth or who I am deep down inside
-Let other people decide what is best for me, control and manipulate the decisions that will determine the rest of my life
-Settle for less than what I know God can do, and convince myself that the mediocrity I’m living is all He wants for my life and all that He wants to bless me with, simply because I’m lazy in prayer and low on faith
Oops, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention that those are my New Year’s Anti-Resolutions. Because everything listed there is exactly who I used to be in the years past.
One of my good friends said to me once, “Things won’t change unless you get sick and tired of being sick and tired.” And that is something that has stuck with me ever since.
This year, instead of making a bunch of quick-fix resolutions that probably don’t have any eternal value, make a decision to not let this new year of your life turn out like some of the years in the past that you wouldn’t choose to replay.
Look at what you have done wrong, or even not done at all, and do the complete opposite. And when you actually list out the things that you wish you could re-do, it will stir an anger in you for wasting so much time and not realizing what you were doing back then.
Don’t let this New Year be one that you look back on wishing you had done things differently. I don’t say that to encourage living a life of regret always looking in the past. I am grateful for all of the dumb decisions that I have made, because they have taught me so much.
Although, I do think that at one point we have to look at our life and say, “Enough is enough.”
Refuse to stay the same. Seek God and ask him to change you from the inside out. Unless there is first a heart change, which comes only by the grace of God, there will never be true and lasting change in your life.
Life is a precious gift from God, and as we see today, not everyone gets that chance of life.
This next year, ask God to redeem your past, your mistakes and to set you on higher ground. Do not let your past define you – do not let the same things you have always done become your future.
And maybe, just maybe, if everyone did this, we could actually change our culture and this nation for the better. All of God’s people, in 2014, reaching in, up, and out. Let’s do it!
P.S. Feel free to leave your own anti-resolutions in the comments below! Let’s sock it to the devil!
P.S.S. If you are looking for a kick in the butt to get your life moving towards change and resolve, I highly recommend reading The Bulldog Attitude by Doug Giles. You can buy the PDF here for only $2.95!
Kristen is a twenty-something living in South Florida. She works for a local pro-life ministry and as an editor for ClashDaily.com.
