It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

New Years resolutions. Not something that I have ever done before. It was never a big deal in my family or among my friends and so I cannot ever remember setting an official New Years resolution.

I think in part that it has something to do with the fact that throughout the year I set resolutions for myself. And then I break them. And then I get frustrated with myself. And then the cycle starts all over. Not fun!

Also, most New Years resolutions are so typical. Read your Bible everyday. Pray for at least an hour a day. Lose 20 pounds by Feb 1. Walk 200 miles in two months. On and on and on and on. All variations of the same theme. The theme that we are not good enough. The theme that we need to improve ourselves. The theme that God somehow screwed up with us and we need to fix what He did.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think that self-improvement is a worthy goal. I think that God asks us to look inside ourselves and work on some issues. However, when we are doing it, I think we need to examine why we are doing it. Are we trying to better ourselves to glorify God through ourselves? Or are we trying to improve ourselves so that we are better, skinnier, holier than the person sitting next to us?

The following is a paraphrase of scripture I found here. I love it. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy. And sometimes, when I reach the point of feeling far away from God, I want the warm and fuzzy. And the "huh" that goes through my brain when being overwhelmed by who God is.

And so, while this is in no way a New Years resolution, I would like to take this in and embrace it in my life. How will I let this (and by this I really do mean God's love and care and discipline in my life) affect the way that I live and interact and worship and serve?

I made her. She is different. She's unique. With love I formed her in her mother's womb. I fashioned her with great joy. I remember with great pleasure the day I created her. (Psalm 139:13-16)

I love her smile. I love her ways. I love to hear her laugh and the silly things she says and does. She brings me great pleasure. (Psalm 139:17)

I made her pretty and not beautiful, because I knew her heart and knew she would be vain. I wanted her to search out her heart and to learn it would be Me in her that would make her beautiful and would draw friends to her. (I Peter 3:3-5)

I made her in such a way that she would need Me. I made her a little more lonesome than she would like to be, only because I want her to turn to Me in her loneliness. Only because I need for her to lean to and depend on Me. I know her heart. I know if I had not made her like this she would go her own way and forget about Me, her Creator. (Psalm 62:5-8)

I have given her many good and happy things because I love her. (Psalm 84:11 and Romans 8:32)

Because I love her, I have seen her broken heart and the tears she has cried alone. I have cried with her and had a broken heart too. (Psalm 56:8)

Many times she has stumbled and fallen alone, only because she would not hold My Hand. So many lessons she has learned the hard way, because she would not listen to My Voice. (Isaiah 53:6)

She is mine. I made her then I bought her because I love her. (Romans 5:8)

I have to reshape and remold her, to renew in her what I want her to be. It has not been easy for her or for me. (Jeremiah 29:11)

I want her to be conformed to My Image. This high goal I have set for her because I love her. (2 Corinthians 2:14)