New Year's Resolution — the blog

I like the idea of a New Year's Resolution...

I really do. I've made them in past years, the whole "new year, new you" thing appeals to me because, let's be honest, I'm a mess. Sometimes it even starts to sound a little like faith, right? Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what lies ahead (Phil 3:13)... the old is gone, the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). And I mean, I like those verses, but... something feels... off. As much as I like the idea of making a New Years resolution... ehh... I just can't this year.

I cannot bring myself to do it.

And here's the best explanation I've come up with:

I know that I'm going to fail.

...and quickly, too. Probably within the first couple of weeks.

Some of that has to do with me being the real-life Halfway Herbert... but a lot of it has to do with the mess my head-space is these days.

Oh, but not just my head-space.
There's also my living space, my marriage space, parenting space, God space, and most other spaces I occupy on a daily basis.

Sheesh... it's just messy, y'all.

I mean check out my "work space" up there... the shark is eating the mermaid, which is cool I guess, but... there are about twenty pillows involved and that's where I'm supposed to sit, so...

I want you to understand what's happening: these very words you're reading right now... I'm typing them while sitting on a shark that is eating a mermaid. Also, here's our Christmas card in case you didn't get one (fyi, nobody got one. because these are gingerbread people.)

So, you see, there's just too much mess in all my spaces to add a super important goal that I know I'll fail within a matter of days, thus piling "failure" on top of all. this. mess.

And that's why I will not make a New Year's Resolution in 2018

I think there's a better way, anyway.

Why pick just one major goal for one upcoming year and why wait until January 1? Why not decide to go on a journey? Like an Every Year's Quest, taking baby steps to becoming the mom, the wife, the person you were created to be?

For me, that has to look like overhauling and simplifying EV.ER.Y space in my life. I'll write about simplifying my spaces here and there, because I think doing that will keep me somewhat accountable, and I’m telling you that now because I think that will also keep me somewhat accountable… I need all the help I can get, y’all.

But not only for accountability… also for sharing ideas and hearing ideas from you. I truly believe that simplifying our spaces (both emotional and physical) will open up so much space for God to fill with Himself and do His sanctifying clean-up of the messes we inevitably create around ourselves as mamas and wives.

And y’all, so much more than any Resolution in 2018, we need more. of. Him.

Mamas, wives, women

...if you’re with me, moving past our resolutions and into His glory has to be where we start.
Because if you look back at those verses I quoted in my intro, and if you read them in their context, I think you’ll see they aren’t about reaching some personal goal or leaving some bad habit in the past.

They are about the redeeming work of Christ in our lives.
LOOK:

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” -Phil 3:12-14 (but read the whole chapter, really)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;” -2 Corinthians 5:17&18 (again, just read the whole chapter)

Christ Jesus has made me His own.
All this is from God.
Let that sink in for a little bit.

Friends, let’s not make resolutions that we are bound to fail this New Year. Let’s put our hands in His and let’s let Him lead us through our clutter and our mess and into His splendid glory, into His everyday mercies, into His love overflowing and never failing.

And come back tomorrow, because I have something to share.