Day 3 of Resolutions

Barna's Research on Resolutions:
When asked to describe their experience with resolutions during 2010, only one out of four Americans (23%) who had made resolutions found those commitments resulted in “significant, long-term change” to their behaviors or attitudes. More commonly, Americans described their 2010 resolutions as resulting in “minor change” (29%) or “no change” (49%).

Resolutions are funny for me. I have found that there are things I want to be different in my life, but I usually don't want to have to change what I do. I like the idea of weighing less, but I don't want to give up the calorie intake to do it. I like the idea of reading more, but I don't want to give up the other activities I engage in.

What I have learned works for me is getting excited about the life change and letting the results be secondary. If I focus only on the results, they usually don't happen. When I focus on the day to day activities of my life and celebrate them and make them habitual the results usually come in time.

I don't really have any resolutions this year, but today I'm getting back into my work mode where my mind is required to live in 5th gear for 8-12 hours a day. This is good and bad. The good thing is that I love what I am privileged to do, but I will miss building legos with Asher, shooting ball with the kids, and the afternoon naps that I enjoyed during my vacation last week.

So it's day 3 of the new year and my prayer is that God will do a fresh work in my heart, allow me to feel His presence in every decision and task, and enable me to rest in the goodness of His grace that provides me the opportunity to live in the power of His Spirit. I am also going to keep the M&M jar in my office closed this week.