(*note; I found this in my archives after having deleted my blog several years ago... thought I'd repost it.)
A Whole New Year; What is YOUR Priority?
Every year I start off with a different set of new 'rules' that I want to keep for myself. We call them resolutions. Some years I've called them "hopes and dreams". Other years I've called them a pain in the but-what-can-you-do.
They have varied over time from hopes to read my Bible cover to cover, eat properly, exercise regularily or keep a journal to; clean up my critical thoughts, simplify my life, stay in touch with family more, quit apologizing for my decisions or earnestly choose to forgive instead of holding a grudge.
I think when we reduce life down to it's simplest form we will begin to see what really matters.
Nothing has personally done this for me more than in the grieving season following the loss of a loved one.
It is during the weeks and months that follow the funeral when, although I am most exhausted, I have greater tolerance for the humdrum dailyness and 'things' of life. I don't seem to care so much when someone cuts in front of me in the grocery store line-up. I put up with clutter, don't flinch when something breaks, ignore the grey hairs, sit down to finish drinking my coffee while it's hot.
At the same time; I find that my intolerance for some things is greatly aggravated.
People who are taking their life for granted irritate me.
I can't stand hearing people bicker, those who must insist on being 'right' become more than annoying, and folks who can only complain with their latest 'world-done-me-wrong' story make me want to slap them up side the head.
I find that the two categories have an interesting co-relation to our new years resolutions.
If we would see that the things that really matter are not 'things' but relationships, we may change our lists from dieting, daily devotions and exercising to sorting through our lives and actively changing the things that really NEED a change. Our attitudes, our interpersonal relationships, our emotional and spiritual investments in others lives. Our own emotional and spiritual health.
Life is short.
This year could be my last. Could be your last. At the end of it; which will matter most? That you shed the extra 10 lbs while reading your Bible as you huffed and puffed on your treadmill? Or that you can see a measurable increase in your love for God, for people and for yourself? That you DID something better, or BECAME someone better?
This New Year, prioritize your life based on eternity. What really will matter in 12 months? What won't? Of course, taking care of our bodies and purposing to be more disciplined are not to be tossed aside. But, perhaps the motive to do those things needs to be analyzed and re-evaluated.
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