I think many of us do that. I'm no stranger to resolutions. I like resolutions. They always spur me on to make myself a better person when I lose sight of who I am during the busyness of each year.
It's so easy to lose sight of who we are and we forget to take care of ourselves the way we need to during the craziness of life. I mean, we're wives, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, employees, teachers, doctors, nurses, public servants, stay at home moms, babysitters, cooks, cleaners, maids, and everything else in between. Life has a way of sweeping us up and carring us along without much for us to grasp onto and stabilize us. If we don't have a firm anchor in what we believe, Who we believe in and what we will do with those beliefs, then it can often feel like life is out of control. After the first couple of weeks in the New Year and the excitement of our new resolution wears off, what do we have to hold onto? Will we have the stamina and self discipline to keep at it even when we don't feel like it or feel too tired or lazy to continue on?
Sometimes life feels a bit like we got swept up into a tornado. Everything is whirling around us, yet there is nothing solid to grasp hold of and things just keep slipping by without us being able to hold onto them. I know I feel half nuts by the end of the year. It's Christmas break and my kids are home for two weeks and, right now, the two weeks break is almost over, and it can't be over soon enough. I can't wait for those little tiny tots to be back at school.
Go ahead, judge me...lol. But for real, I'm being downright honest here. I mean, I think if you got real too, you might realize how much you want a quiet house again and not so much mess all the time. Getting into a schedule and having things back the way they are for 40% of the year sounds pretty good to me. Doesn't it to you? I'm sure in a few days when they're back at school, I'm going to miss their cute faces and their sticky fingers, but right now? I just want the stickiness gone and my house to be quiet and free of dirt and toys and stuff everywhere.
But, back to resolutions! I am not sure I am going to resolve to do anything crazy, like lose weight or join a gym, or make fun lunches for my kids in 2017. I always have these grand ideas and plans and hopes and dreams, but in all reality, I end up just twirling around in the blender of life and end up a bit disappointed at the end of the year, knowing that half, or even more than half, of my resolutions went down the drain.
I think my "New Year's Resolution" is going to be to resolve to do things I know I can do, like being kind to everyone I meet. I'm going to try to be more supportive of my husband, my children and my friends. I am going to integrate and participate more in our church. I'm going to greet my kids with a smile every morning and be fine with feeding them cheerios for breakfast. I am going to be ok with who I am and the body that I was given. I am going to think positive. I am going to be thankful for the beauty that God has given me in my family, my husband and my house, and everything else too.
But the main resolution that we need to make and hold onto, despite being tired, discouraged, depressed, sad, frustrated, angry, busy, distracted or whatever else life throws at us is our relationship with God. He is our solid foundation. I saw a quote today that is quite common, but it stuck with me unlike other times. It said, "Sometimes we need to hit rock bottom, because it is the rock bottom that we hit that becomes our solid foundation." Hitting rock bottom sounds so low, so sad, so....far....down. But what happens when a house is built? They dig down and make a flat surface. They anchor the house to a rock solid foundation. Without that rock (concrete), the house would never stand. It would just be propped up and when the winds and rains came, it would blow down into shambles. In life, our foundation is Jesus. He is our Rock. He is the One who stabilizes us, who holds us together despite our failures. He is the One who allows us to reach rock bottom so we can discover who holds it all together. So, the biggest part of my New Year's resolution is to focus on my relationship with God and growing in Him every single day. He will be my anchor. He will be my song. He will be my strength. He will be my foundation.
Another thing I am going to work on is being happy. Happiness is a choice. It's something we create inside ourselves. We choose to be happy in life. It's like a kid at Christmas and he gets a fun toy; he could choose to be really excited and jump up and down, or he could choose to say, "I don't like this...this isn't what I wanted." Sometimes life doesn't dish out what we want. Sometimes life dishes out some really sour lemons and salty pickles, but we can choose to make some yummy lemonade with those lemons and make some scrumptious hamburgers with those pickles. Or we could choose to sit sadly, staring at the lemons and pickles, wondering why life keeps handing the yucky stuff to us.
The choice is yours. The choice is mine.
We choose every single day to think positively or negatively. We choose our reactions. We choose our actions. We choose, choose, choose.
What will your choice be this coming year?
Resolve something and stick with it. Don't over complicate things. Don't stress over failures. Don't worry about the things that you mess up. Life is full of mess-ups, clean-ups and pick-ups. We have to just brush ourselves off, learn from our mistakes and keep going.
In this day and age, it seems that perfection is called for everyone. There is no room for mistakes, but that is what is wrong with our society, in my opinion. We hold ourselves and others to impossible standards and then, when we fail, or others fail us, we fall flat on our faces and get all upset because of how things are going. Life is like a rollercoaster, going up and down and all around. Our hair gets a bit messed up, we squeal, we fear, we laugh, we cry, we shake, we scream, we throw our hands up in the air, we enjoy ourselves and then, we do it all over again.
Have a really wonderful, exciting, filled-with-joy New Year! Make 2017 a great, great year. Remember, happiness is a choice. Life can throw you a bunch of curveballs and craziness, but you can still choose to smile through it all.
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