Resolved

"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul." G.K. Chesterton

I don't often make New Year's resolutions, but my friend Kathy at Faith on the High Wire is hosting a New Year's Resolution "Linky Party" and her invitation to 'attend' has given me an opportunity to consider making new promises to myself, to God, and to share my thoughts here.


We measure our lives by the passing of years. I am 50 years old. I have been married for 25 years. This year my grandson will celebrate his first birthday. Some events are celebrated joyfully and others are marked by sadness or simple nostalgia. I am sure there is nothing wrong with looking forward to special events, beach vacations, going out to dinner, or retirement, but I'm beginning to think that I am way too attached to my anticipation of certain events and to my expectations of how they will unfold. I expect that grandbabies will be born on or near their due dates, and that their mommies will never become too ill to care for them. I expect that daughters will graduate from high school and head to cosmetology school because all she's talked about for the past year is how much she loves to style hair. I expect that sons will drop out of college, but not drop out of Church. If I've learned anything in 2010 it is that although it is beneficial to make plans, I mustn't cling to them; mustn't own them, because God always has other plans.

And so, I have come up with only one resolution - to live my life from one moment to the next. I don't mean merely to exist from one moment to the next, swaddled by indifference and boredom, tackling one perfunctory task after another like some lifeless automaton. No, I will not wish my life away - beginning my Monday wishing it were Friday and complaining that weekends are never long enough or relying on the anticipation of an upcoming event  to motivate me to merely muddle through the next few months. I resolve really and truly to live my life from one moment to the next; to seek Him each and every day; to find Him everywhere, in every situation; to invite Him into my simple, ordinary, very little life and abide with Him there. And to be a most gracious host, grateful for His coming. Always grateful for the gifts He brings, particularly the gift of the present moment.