The New Year’s Resolutions I Should Have

As a new year approaches, most of us begin to reassess the previous twelves months. We consider what we have accomplished, which goals we have achieved, and for some, how much fun we had. This can be an enjoyable experience or a painful one depending on the year. (2020, anyone?) No matter how the year played out, a new year signifies a time for new beginnings. We tell ourselves it’s a fresh start and buy clean planners and new calendars. “New year. New me.” And how do we take advantage of this blank page of a year? We make promises to ourselves we probably won’t keep. New Year’s resolutions.

Typical New Year’s Resolutions

Maybe I’m alone in this, but I have often gotten swept up in the New Year’s resolution trap. Every year I began by trying to overhaul everything about myself, and by February I was laying on the couch, watching I Love Lucy, eating ice cream, and retaking the throne as Queen Sarcasm.

New Year’s resolutions don’t work for most of us. We could list plenty of reasons why: lack of motivation, unrealistic and undefined goals, no plan, etc. But Christian, I think one major reason we consistently fail at our resolutions is that we make the wrong ones. Below are eight common New Year’s resolutions. I’m not claiming they are bad resolutions, but they might need to be tweaked.

The Wrong New Year’s Resolutions (For Me)

1. Lose Weight

Pro Tip: Try working out at home before trying out the gym. That place will be a madhouse as it’s inundated with naively optimistic newbies. Give it a month or so to clear out when pizza and Netflix finally win out for most people.

2. Get Organized

The holidays have a way of making our homes feel cluttered and messy. Who wouldn’t look around and feel a need to tidy up?

3. Quit (insert bad habit here)

Are you a smoker, binge drinker, over-eater, under-eater…? Yeah, this might be the year to drop these habits.

4. Learn How To (insert hobby of interest here)

I removed this from my list years ago. With five kids and a husband in full-time ministry, time to learn a skill is seriously lacking. But don’t let my pessimism slow you down. Go for it!

5. Save More Money

Do this. It’s never a bad idea. Another way to phrase it is, “spend less.” The trick is the economy. How are we all going to save money while everything costs so much more?

6. Be A Better Wife, Friend, Mother, Etc.

Is it just me, or is the expression “do better” the absolute most annoying thing people say these days? It’s especially obnoxious when it is my New Year’s resolution.

7. Travel More

Assuming we don’t have another pandemic…

8. Read The Entire Bible In A Year

Well, is there any New Year’s resolution more standard for a Christian than this one? It goes great until halfway through Leviticus. And if you manage to pull through the Pentateuch, you still have the minor prophets to read through.

What’s Wrong?

Is there a problem with these New Year’s resolutions? Are they bad to make? No. People make these resolutions because they want to see improvement in their lives. They want to…do better. I don’t know anyone who cannot relate to that feeling.

Unfortunately, we have developed patterns of living, habits, and ways of thinking that make improvement difficult, if not impossible. Why else would self-help books fly off the shelves year after year? I mean, if we could “self-help,” then we’d only have to read one book.

We need to keep God at the center of our New Year’s resolutions, and lean on His strength. In fact, we should prayerfully consider what changes we might attempt to make in the new year rather than name it and claim it.

What can we do for God this year instead of for ourselves? Contemplate why you want to make the New Year’s resolutions you do, and determine if they will help you to fulfill the most important purpose you have in this world. To love and serve the Lord.

My New Year’s Resolutions Swap

I have many goals for 2023, most of which I haven’t shared online. For example, I’d like to read and finish an embarrassingly small number of books this year. I’m a great starter, but I struggle to get through them in a reasonable amount of time…or ever.

The eight common goals I previously listed are among the things I strive to work toward this year, but I decided they needed to be tweaked to accomplish my overall goal of serving God and growing in His likeness. At the risk of looking like a failure in December 2023, I’m going to share my resolutions/goals.

1. Improve My Overall Health

That goal is too general, so I have broken it down into physical, mental, and spiritual health. I want to lose weight, but more importantly, I want to fuel my body with foods that are good for me and keep it active. Nothing about that is natural to me because I grew up on pizza and Ecto Cooler. If the scale never moves, though, but I feel healthy, then I have succeeded.

My mental health requires me to take breaks and ask for help. Sounds easy, I know. However, there are no things more difficult for me than those two tasks. But they are essential for me to avoid burning myself out.

Moving on to my spiritual condition, time with the Lord is essential. If I don’t pray every day and stay in His Word on a daily basis, how can I be spiritually healthy? I am a poor substitute for God, yet I easily stray into an “I-have-it-under-control” mentality while I sideline Him. Prioritizing time with Him is an important step in keeping Him in His rightful place.

Keeping myself healthy is something I want because I know I will feel better and be happier, but I also know that I am a better Christian when those things are in place. That’s the real goal for having good health.

2. Simplify

I get disorganized because I have too much. I have too much stuff, responsibilities, commitments, plans, and perceived expectations to meet. I can’t keep all the balls in the air and all the plates spinning. Life quickly moves into survival mode rather than the abundant life in Christ I ought to be living (John 10:10).

This year, I want to purge and prune things out of my life that I don’t need in order to remove anything that competes with God for my attention.

3. Replace (insert undesired behavior here)

Have you ever spoken to someone who tried to quit smoking? An individual may earnestly desire to quit, but she finds the habit is too strong. Often, people try to quit things with nothing in place to fill the void. So, for instance, a smoker must replace smoking with another behavior. Gum is a popular choice.

As I come across bad habits, I need to not only quit them but replace them with desirable behaviors. When I stopped drinking in 2009 after I got saved, I read from my Bible after work instead of pouring a drink. This year, I plan to choose to replace anything I want to remove from my life with edifying things just as I did in 2009.

I don’t currently have any specific habits or behaviors in mind, but I’m certain the Holy Spirit will convict me when things come up. And I’m sure things will come. They always do.

4. Attempt Things

When I say I’m going to learn how to do something, I put pressure on myself to master that thing. I want to learn to sew, but I don’t have the time or motivation to really pour myself into it.

This insight, though, holds me back from trying things that are out of my comfort zone. In the past, for example, I was too scared to speak in public at church functions. I figured I wasn’t a good speaker, and really, who am I to speak about anything, anyway? Well, I finally made an attempt, and it wasn’t terrible. Dare I say, I was even glad I had done it. I have been open to those opportunities ever since.

This year, when I feel the Lord’s prompting to try something I may be insecure about, I’m going to try. Maybe I’ll fail fantastically at it, but I’ll be willing to try and learn new things so that I can serve Him.

5. Spend My Money Purposefully

I’m always looking for ways to save a little money and keep a careful budget. Raising five kids can get expensive, especially now. Saving money, however, can feel like I’m just trying to hoard our money rather than find ways to use it well.

So, this year my view on money is to spend it with purpose and care. It’s a plan on which I think even Dave Ramsey and I could agree. When we control our money, plan for its use carefully, and see it as God’s money, we use it less selfishly and recklessly.

This year, I won’t just save money but spend it with God in mind.

6. Deepen My Relationships

I’m a surface level person in many relationships. Keeping people at a distance is useful if you want to protect yourself from getting hurt by letting people in, but it’s really no good at all if you want to invest in others. For me, the best place to start is with those closest to me.

One of the easiest ways to minister to others is to have a relationship with those in need. If I keep everyone at a distance, then why would they ever trust me to care for them? The best way I can show others Christ is to model love in my life, and love is never from a place of self-preservation.

7. See More Of God’s Creation

In my youth, I had no interest in travel. As the years have gone on, though, I have been bit by the travel bug. I had been almost nowhere when I got married, and in the grand scheme of things, I still haven’t been many places. Nonetheless, our family has made seeing new things and new places a priority.

I’m not an outdoorsy girl, but camping has become a part of our annual plan. Living in Wisconsin, there are so many beautiful places to visit. Last year, Gooseberry Falls was a highlight for everyone. Seeing some of God’s creation up close has deepened my faith and my appreciation for God’s creativity, goodness, and power.

I still want to see cool man-made attractions, but shame on me if I neglect to see the wonderful “attractions” God has made all around us.

8. Grow In My Biblical Understanding

How many of us mindlessly power through our daily Bible reading so we can check it off and count it towards our goal of reading the Bible in a year? I think all of us have been guilty of that at one time or another.

Reading the Bible in a year is a great goal, but what are we getting out of it? Are we just going through the motions or really digesting what we read? Are we studying God’s Word or merely reading out of duty?

To change up how I read it this year, I’m going through the Bible chronologically. This small change requires me to read differently than I usually do and see the Bible through a different lens. I’m hoping a chronological read-through will help me understand the Bible in a deeper way.

Final Thought

Have New Year’s resolutions or don’t have them. There is no reason to get caught up on these, but we do need to consider for what purpose we create goals and seek improvement. Try as we may, we’ll never be as disciplined as we need to be on our own, and we won’t ever be able to properly serve God if all of our goals and New Year’s resolutions are self-focused. So, as another year begins, consider who you serve and how best to serve Him because isn’t that what all Christians should be resolved to do every year?

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

Image courtesy of Tim Mossholder via Unsplash.