Resolutions are fun because they are covenants you only make with yourself, so you know you’ll let yourself off easy. Fuggetabout it, thou good and well-meaning servant; Have a cookie. They are fleetingly edifying, bolstering self-worth and vision for the moments you think to make them. I hesitate to make resolutions because of the myriad of mangled mortgages I’ve already left in my wake. If foiled resolutions were movie deaths, mine would be a Rambo boxed set. If there was a Final Solution for resolutions, I would be sitting pompously, arms crossed, listening to interpreters on headphones in Nuremburg. I am become death, destroyer of resolutions.
So now that we’re clear on all of that, here are some of my resolutions for 2008:
Family home evening: Structured, spiritually satisfying, something a little more optimistic than watching TV in the same room on Monday night. I’m thinking prayers, lessons, stuff like that. And games– a great opportunity to teach my little girl hold ‘em poker– tie in the community cards to gospel principles: As these cards help us, we should be stewards of OUR community and serve others.
Daily scripture reading: Because I’m tired of losing at scripture chases to the other high priests.
Daily family prayer: If the Lord sees it’s all of us asking, it might be harder for Him to say no.
Lose weight: Yes, I do have a fixed number in mind. Why?
Stick to my diet: You may think this is a redundancy to Lose Weight, but it’s actually a promise to patently stay away from meat, dairy and fried foods. This is what I get for asking my doctor’s opinion.
100% home teaching for the year: It was suggested in the last PEC that ding-dong ditches count now.
Temple attendance every month: This is a no-brainer. I love going to the temple. Like I’m going to turn down a free movie? Besides, visiting the cafeteria reminds me how truly blessed I am the other 29 days.
There are other areas where I should probably improve myself (impatience and irreverence, for example, but they’re still my sacred cows), but for the time being I’ll just stick my neck out with these. Trite, I know, but definitely not couch potato fare.
Are resolutions pansy substitutes for commitments to God? And if so, do they exclude the opportunity for blessings even if you achieve your goals?
5 responses so far ↓
1 xoxoxoxo // Jan 14, 2008 at 5:54 am
A-pansy substitutes? Could be. Particularly if said resolutions have no eternal impact…ya know…if they really don’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.
B-depends on what one considers “blessings” to be.
For example, teaching your child how to bluff at poker might lead her to a ridiculous income that allows her husband to stay home with the kids and watch SurvivorMan all day. It also might lead to jail time in early adulthood. Some would call either a blessing…
Abstaining from meat, dairy and fried foods is a blessing to your arteries, but not to your taste buds.
Blessings are sometimes in the eye of the beholder…or in your case…in a good hand of hold ‘em.
2 David // Jan 14, 2008 at 4:36 pm
No doubt, having a card shark for a daughter and squeaky clean arteries & colon are blessings, but I was thinking more of the bonus points you get when you involve Father in the contract. The residual “Thanks-for-counting-Me-in-have-a-beaucoup-fab-life” blessings. On a related note, I’m fascinated how making efforts in certain areas of your life generates blessings in others. For example, by doing churchly (say that word 3 times real fast) duties, you find home and work life noticeably improve. Kind of like those Enzyte commercials, but in a more spiritual vein.
3 xoxoxoxo // Jan 15, 2008 at 6:11 am
Everything in life is better when Father is involved in it. What is sad is how often we forget to invite Him to participate in the little things, the smaller-less significant trials when of course He wants to be involved in every aspect of our lives.
I often remind myself that when my children start to marry off, I want to be the kind of “agency respecter” that our Father in Heaven is-ready and willing at any time to help, but never willing to cross into the buttinski zone.
As for your last thought-a little obedience goes a long ways…when we turn towards Him a little, He blesses us a lot. But I’m going to stop short of tying that into the Enzyte commercials if that’s ok with you!
4 David // Jan 15, 2008 at 6:50 am
I find myself talking to Him more these days in my head. I thank Him when I find my cell phone, which I am notorious for losing. I thank Him when I find a way to get into my car after I’ve locked myself out, without getting into a long, drawn-out ordeal. I thank Him when I find something in a store that I was so set on getting, after I rifle through a pile three times and somehow it appears on the fourth. I thank Him when I settle a tiff with a co-worker (we Internet folk are a passionate lot) or when my daughter surprises me with hidden wisdom. Although, as you say, there are probably those negligible times I play the little kid who cries for God’s help as he falls and then says never mind when a branch catches the seat of his Osh-Koshs. Not as much as there used to be, though, I’m happy to say.
5 xoxoxoxo // Jan 15, 2008 at 11:00 pm
David-I do the exact same thing, and it falls under my definition of “pray (ing) always”. Like a Celestial Bluetooth there’s a running dialog in my head all day with my Savior and I apologize (mentally) when I screw up, which is often and thank Him when I’m blessed, which is also often. I need to make myself be MORE formal than I am-there-a New Year’s Resolution!
I am continually amazed at how comfortably He fits into nearly every aspect of my day, and how much I miss Him when I get too annoying for even Him to be around.
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