I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas and was able to spend some time with friends and family. Now, here we are looking at yet another New Year. I’ll be honest this is one holiday that I never really understood the excitement for. I mean it is really just another day. It just so happens that this day starts a new calendar year. I’ve never found that my life changed drastically from December 31st to January 1st. I’ve never been a drinker or a social person so the New Year’s parties were never really any fun for me. I’m a night owl so staying up past midnight isn’t really that special. I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions and I’m certainly not putting on those goofy New Year’s glasses. I’m not trying to be a downer; I just really don’t get it. All it has ever signified for me is 2 – 3 months of having to scratch out the date whenever I write it because I wrote the wrong year.
I hear people every year talking about how the next year is: going to be different, better or how they are going to change, and this year is going to be my year. However, whenever I look at them a year later I see exactly the same person that I saw a year ago. Chances are they are even saying the exact same thing that they said last year. New Year’s Resolutions always seemed ridiculous to me. If you really want to change something in your life you don’t need to wait until the New Year to do it. It always seemed to me that it was just an excuse not to do it. I mean it’s the same thing if you are smoking a cigarette and you tell you me that you are going to quit; I may not say it out loud, but in my head I’m thinking, if you really wanted to quit you wouldn’t be smoking that one. Normally, I am steadfast in my refusal to set any sort of goals around the New Year just so nobody mistakes it as a New Year’s Resolution, and yes as I typed that out, I realized that the logic behind that way of doing things is just as flawed and ridiculous as the logic of waiting for the New Year to start a goal.
However, I have seen something this year that has caused me to change my thought process. For the first time, I am able to see somebody that has changed drastically from last new year to this New Year; somebody that set goals for the New Year and not only achieved them, but absolutely crushed them. My wife set goals for herself to read 5 books, run a 5k, and lose 40lbs. Here we are at the end of December and she has read 10 books not including her Bible Studies, ran 3 5ks including one where she was the 5th one to finish, and lost over 50lbs. The transformation that I’ve seen in her attitude and confidence has been amazing. She has been contacted by people asking for help, advice and encouragement all of which she is happy to give. In fact, if you would like to read more about her story you can go to her What the Healthy Blog. But to make a long story short, she gave me confidence that you can actually set a goal, accomplish it, and see dramatic results from it.
I’m still not doing a “New Year’s Resolution” but I am going to set a year goal for myself. It is something I have been struggling with for awhile now and I want to make it a priority to fix it. I am going to set a goal and make a commitment to get into the Bible and read scripture every single day. That may seem like a weird thing for me to say since I write stuff for a Christian blog, but let me explain in a little more detail what I mean. The truth is I do read scripture most days, if not every day as it is. However, the scripture I am reading is stuff that I am looking up for the piece that I am writing. I am researching a topic and finding verses to go with that topic. I’ve had times where God was able to talk to me through my research, but I have allowed my time researching my blog to replace my quiet time with God. That simply isn’t ok. I need that time with God. I need to sit down and read the scripture not because I need to finish this latest draft, but because I want God always speaking into my life. I need to read and hear what God is trying to tell me as opposed to finding the things that I want to write about.
I think I will start in John. It is my favorite Gospel so I know I will enjoy reading it. I don’t know if the stuff I’m reading will find its way into my blog or not. I thought about doing a “reading the bible series” in addition to the other stuff that I write, but I have to be careful with that. I need this to be about my time with God and not about getting recognition on my blog. So, I’ll just wait and see what God calls me to do. I don’t have any grand point to make in this blog or any clever ending to give. I just felt like I should be open and honest about my need to truly get back into God’s word, and hopefully set myself up with some accountability partners, since now anyone that reads this knows exactly what I am supposed to do every single day.
I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. I pray that God blesses you and your family in the coming year.
What have you been reading lately? Any specific book of the Bible that you would say is your favorite?
I would love to hear about it in the comments.
