New Year's resolutions

Image from Holstee

By Karen Brown

I am a list-maker. Lists make me feel a sense of control over the chaos around me. Lists give me a sense of order to what needs to be done and when. Lists help my head stop spinning, and they make my time more intentional. Lists completely work for me.

Here’s the thing with lists though, at least mine. The list is never complete. I always rewrite “the list” before all the things are crossed off. It doesn’t bother me in the least to have the same item on my list and just move it to the next day. A nice new list is like a fresh start at what needs to get accomplished. Would I prefer to cross it off? Sure I would, and eventually I will, but having the list is a roadmap of sorts for how I structure a particular day.

Lists of New Year’s Resolutions though are another matter. I think it’s the word resolution that I have a hard time with. Resolution makes it feel as if these items on the list will be resolved, done, complete, finished. For me, that feels like a lot of pressure. Like maybe I shouldn’t put it on the list if I don’t see it moving off the list sometime this year. Crazy, I know.

Of course I am still going to make a New Year’s list, I will just call it something different. Maybe I’ll call it my “2012 Aspirations” or maybe I’ll structure it more like a prayer list (because if I am honest, most of the things on my list aren’t going to get done without some strength and determination I don’t presently have).

Whatever I call it, I welcome the renewal that January ushers in. A time for the slate to be wiped clean, a time for things to be made new, a time for reflection and growth, a time to decide what this next year will be about. What I will be about. What direction our family will move, and what we will hold in high regard. Who we will be in Christ Jesus. So I will embrace this New Year, lists and all. His faithfulness and compassions are new every morning, and I am confident that when I fail, as I surely will, that His grace will be enough.