2012. Happy new year! A time for reflecting back and looking ahead. A time for renewed hope and purpose.
It’s the time of year when we all are uniquely focused on how to become a better, healthier, stronger, more disciplined (fill in the blank with any other admirable, comparative adjective) person.
We call them resolutions.
Do you have one for 2012?
If you’re like me, you ride the wave and think about how you’d like to change. Your well-rehearsed daydreams of the new-and-improved you take center stage.
But after a brief and glorious moment, you realize that your propensity to fail (as evidenced by 2011’s unmet goals) combined with the limited 8760+ hours in a year are giants you have yet to conquer, so you set your pretty dreams on a shelf to collect dust until next year.
(Some of you are over-achievers with a tendency towards extreme optimism, so for you, this entry makes little sense, . . . Bear with me.)
What would happen, though, if I changed my perspective?
Lamentations 3:22-23 — The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. (NLT, emphasis mine)
What if I began to embrace each day as the new beginning it was intended to be?
What if I used each morning’s blank slate as an opportunity TODAY to live out my resolve to be more patient, to show more love, to exercise more, to . . . ?
Don’t give up on yourself. When you fail in the pursuit of your 2012 goals, don’t wait until 2013 to get back up and try again. Every day is a new day. It’s God’s design.
Let him flood you with his stores of mercy each day and may that lead you to become the version of yourself you desire to be in 2012.