9 Resolutions No Family Makes
I've seen many blogs, posts, articles, and tweets this week about New Year's Resolutions. Many are expected and predictable, but here are 9 New Year's Resolutions that No Family Makes:
(1) Develop a deeper resentment for my spouse, allowing hostitlity to cultivate long seasons of silence in our marriage.
Instead, let us develop new ways to Love our spouses, even during times of conflict.
(2) Give into feelings of depression and negativity, while seeking new opportunities to complain about family and life.
Instead, let us give into Joy, refusing to allow our changing circumstances to define our ability to rejoice.
(3) Meditate on our anxious thoughts while worrying about the possible outcomes, dangers, and hardships of tomorrow.
Instead, let us take these thoughts captive and yield to a spirit of Peace; a peace that can only come from Christ; a peace that surpasses our understanding and guards our hearts and minds
(Philippians 4:6-7).
(4) Make sure my family knows daily just how agitated I am with them, our schedules, my job, and just life in general.
Instead, let us make sure our family knows the Patience Christ has shown us by the way we show patience to them and others.
(5) Search for every chance to be selfish in my home, making sure that I get my way on my terms in my timing as often as possible this year.
Instead, let our actions be characterized by Kindness, as we count the rest of the family more important than ourselves.
(6) Open up the front door of my home to new levels of immorality and evil through the sin in my life.
Instead, let us open up the front door to the Goodness of God, protecting our hearts and homes from anything that is not of Him.
(7) Invite adultery into my family by embracing lust and pornography, hoping that it won't ruin my marriage.
Instead, let us invite Faithfulness to rule this year, fleeing from sin and enjoying the blessings of purity.
(8) Discipline my children with a hard heart and no grace, perhaps even provoking them to anger.
Instead, let our discipline be seasoned with grace and done in Gentleness, as we bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).
(9) Spend this year with a "Free-for-all" motto tattooed on my heart, celebrating the chaos and disorder of a life led by the desires of my flesh.
Instead, let us spend this year with the biblicall call of Self-Control tattooed on our hearts, celebrating the freedom that can only be known when we submit our desires to the Lord.
Perhaps then, our New Year's Resolution should simply stem from Galatians 5:22-23 as we walk by the Spirit, producting the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulnesss, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
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