2010 presents us with another set of opportunities. Opportunities to improve our lives, to correct past mistakes and basically become better people. Many people are focused on resolutions for the year but most of these resolutions will be broken before the end of the month.
I found this article in a church bulletin and thought it was something worth sharing. It contains some “doable” suggestions for changing your life in this new year of opportunities. I hope you find it helpful.
Planning for the New Year
by Kelby Smith
The planning of the new year is a time when people normally set goals and make resolutions. Yet we all know that making resolutions is a lot easier than keeping them. Horace Mann once said, “I have never read anything about the resolutions of the Apostles, but a great deal about the acts of the Apostles.
Listed below are some suggestions to help you make 2010 the best year ever.
- Accomplish something. Set your goal to accomplish something worthwhile during 2010. It may not be some grand achievement or a great contribution to the world. Don’t forget that ordinary accomplishments are important too. Make the world a better place because you are in it.
- Be the best that you can. If you are capable of teaching a class, leading a song, or leading someone to Christ, live up to your potential. Remember Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men . . . “
- Be content. Our society has more material possessions and comforts than any who has ever gone before. Let’s be appreciative! Make it your goal to learn to practice the art of contentment in 2010. In I Timothy 6:6, we are told that godliness with contentment is great gain.
- Grow Spiritually. Read your Bible and pray to God daily. Attend all services. Get involved in [church] programs of work. It is a tragedy when people make great achievements in the area of business, finances, and professional careers, and their spiritual life is mediocre at best. Would you be satisfied to prosper in other areas in the same degree that you prosper spiritually?
- Set a goal to be better at the end of the year than at the beginning. Make a list of goals. Put it in a safe place and get it out occasionally to see how you are progressing. A simple but sincere woman said it this way, “I ain’t what I oughter be; and I ain’t what I’m gonna be; but I sure ain’t what I was!” May we all be able to make the same statement at the end of 2010.