Saturday, December 28, 2013

What's for the New Year?

New Years day is almost upon us, just three days away.  Then it will be 2014.  Doesn't seem possible does it?  What will the New Year bring?  We don't know do we, but we can do something that will make it a great New Year.  Try doing something that will enhance your life and your spiritual condition.  You just might like it.

When I was just a teenager about 13, I heard someone talking about New Year's Resolutions and I gave this quite a bit of thought and it came to me that if I made a resolution to God and kept it for a whole year, the problem would be gone, it really doesn't take a whole year to break a bad habit but for sure after a year it doesn't even come to mind anymore.

I loved to read the funnies in the News Paper and for some reason I was convicted that it wasn't right for me to spend my time on this kind of trash, being just a kid when I think back on it, I was baptized when I was twelve years old and I know now that God was working on this childish mind, trying to bring it into line with His mind, 'let this mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus' Philippians 2:5.  So, I made a resolution to put the funnies away for good, and you know I didn't really miss them.  I was raised by a severe step father and there wasn't a whole lot of joy in our home and I guess the funnies gave me something to laugh at even though it was stupid. But to this day I never am tempted to read anything like that.

Through the years I have made New Year's resolutions and have usually kept them, I have to admit that there have been times I have failed.  When we had our Nursing Home, at Holiday time all the businesses that we dealt with gave us huge boxes of chocolates and I looked forward to that, they were so good and such a wonderful gift, I thought.  Little did I know that I was totally and dangerously allergic to chocolate.  But I decided to give it up for a year, now that was a little harder on me than the funnies but as the year went by, little by little I didn't crave chocolate as much until by the year's end the craving was completely gone and when we got several boxes, I mean five pound boxes from the businesses, I decided that it would be a friendly gesture to give them to our neighbors as a Christmas gift and that we did, the kids delivered them for me.  Later on I ate some at the Hershey plant in Pennsylvania and immediately broke out all over and the next day my bronchial system started shutting down, so I knew then why I was impressed to give up chocolate.  Isn't God good?

So today, just a few days before New Years, is there something in your life that you need to get rid of?  Can you think of something that has been nagging you in the back of your mind that you need to give up for good?  Would God like you to change your diet to something more wholesome?  Would He like you to give up something that is harming your health?  How about  something that is harming your mind? or causing you emotional pain?  Are your associations dragging you down?  Are you dragging others down?  Sometimes we drag others down if we can, so that it helps us not feel so guilty when they join us in our low estate. Is there something we could change in our life that would make our life, our home our neighborhood a better place to live?

I challenge you today to give it some very serious thought, and when you decide on something that needs changing, make your resolution before God and He will help you keep it, I always considered it the most important part of New Years day to make at least one and then keep it for the whole year and by then it wouldn't bother me any more.  Seriously, do it, you won't regret it, it just may be the most important thing you do this year.  You will be the one to benefit and others may decide to do it with you.  How wonderful that would be.  God bless you as you make some changes in your life for the betterment and you will never regret it. I am going to do it again, there are always things that I can do to better my life. The best thing you can do is resolve to spend time every day with Jesus, for sure you won't regret that.   Grandma Joan

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