We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. (Edith Pierce)
I like thinking about a new year as an open book for us to write our own words on the blank pages of each day. Of course, many days the words are somewhat planned out for us by what’s happening to us or our family. We can’t always jot down the words we want to write to make our day’s turn out as we wish. But then, sometimes we can. Sometimes the day or week or year opens up in front of us like a gift. A day for us to unwrap, moment by moment.
For years I used to write in my journal every new year and record what had happened in the past year and what the upcoming year might hold. Sometimes I wrote down goals for my writing. I would finish this or that book. I would come up with better stories, the kind readers wanted to read. During my down years when my stories weren’t selling, I would hope for a publisher in the year to come. That’s what many of those New Year journal entries were about. Hope. And persistence.
I also wrote about my family life. The good and the bad. Every year had its joys. Many years also had sorrows. That’s how life is. It can be messy. It can be wonderful. It can be scary. It can be exciting. Sometimes it’s all those and more at the same time. We can look back. We can plan ahead, but we can’t know what the future holds. We have to embrace the joy of the present. Or endure whatever has to be endured. To reach for faith to make the next step, to live the next day. To resolve to be the best that we can be.
For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5: 7 (NKJ)
And so when we have a New Year, a beginning, we think about improving ourselves. We make New Year’s Resolutions. We promise to stop doing something we think we should stop doing. Start doing something we think we should start doing. Eat less. Exercise more. Spend more time studying the Scripture. More time in prayer. Take time for joy. Maybe do some task we’ve put off too long. If you’re like me, you have plenty of ways to improve.
One of my resolves might be to finish my work in progress and get it in before my deadline. But that isn’t really a New Year’s Resolution. That’s a goal. I like the idea of goals better than resolutions. We don’t have to wait for a New Year’s day to set a goal. Any time, any day can be a great goal setting time. I will….
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. (C.S. Lewis)
Do you like to make New Year’s Resolutions? Have any of them turned into goals?
As always, thanks for reading.