Looking back on last year’s resolutions, I am tempted to simply link to that post and be done. My resolutions for this year are largely the same. The reason I enjoy making resolutions every year is that I don’t like the idea of staying the same. Christians are called to live a life of sanctification, becoming more and more like Christ with each passing day. We are not to stagnate. Therefore, I look at the blank canopy of a new year with enthusiasm for what God has in store for me and my family, and how I can work alongside the Holy Spirit in living my life more for the glory of God and His Kingdom.
New Year’s Resolutions
A Reading List for 2022
In my post on New Year’s Resolutions this past Monday, I included a section on reading. A resolution is really unnecessary as I love to read, but I have it nonetheless. I would like to read more, and this gives me something to aim at.
The following list represents the books that I’ve tentatively put before me to read this year. This list isn’t set in concrete, and I have no problem adjusting as the year goes on. In fact, I’m currently enrolled in seminary, and I’ll be adding books from classes this year (there’s a section for that at the bottom).
I usually try to read a book on marriage each year, conspicuously missing below. However, I’m planning on taking a Biblical Counseling class on Marriage and Parenting this Spring semester, including such materials.
One final note, the lists in each category are arranged roughly in priority order. For example, the books I’m currently reading (marked as in-progress) are at the top. Following these are the books I would like to read next. If you would like to follow me on GoodReads you can come along on this journey with me!
Without further ado, the list!
2022 New Year’s Resolutions
It has been a couple of years since I posted any New Year’s Resolutions. Some Christians swear by them, and others decry them as unbiblical. I think they help frame the New Year with goals for improvement. That can’t be a bad thing, can it?
2019 New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year! This is the first day of 2019, which means there is only one year remaining before we find ourselves in the year 2020 (twenty-twenty). Wow! That sounds like science fiction for those of us who grew up in the previous millennium. 2018 was quite an extreme year for our family, and may be one of the toughest we’ve encountered. It was full of many, many blessings but also many trials and opportunities for God to stretch us and turn us into the people that He wants us to be. I may write about some of the things that happened this past year in the coming weeks… but then I may not. You’ll just have to wait and see.
For this year’s resolutions I wanted to change it up a bit. My resolutions this year are all verbs. Actually, present participles if you want to get technical. These are really just areas that I want to improve upon. To be sure, there are specific steps and goals within each that may or may not be listed below, but the idea is that I just want to get better. They are in no particular order, except for the opening resolution which is really the foundation of them all, and the closing resolution which buttons things up quite nicely. Without further ado, here are my resolutions for the year of our Lord two thousand and nineteen.
2015 New Year’s Resolutions
Looking Back
2014 has been a milestone year in my life. God sovereignly transformed my life sometime around Easter in the biggest way possible… He saved me from my own self-righteousness and unbelief. What I had previously thought was the Christian life, was really a false sense of hope and a works-based religion. You can read about that in My Personal Testimony.
Consistent with being a “new man”, my desires have changed radically this year. I spend a lot of my free time reading about Theology or watching sermons online. I have endeavored to “catch up” on the meat of Christian faith that I have missed out on, and it has been good. I have read God’s Word more consistently and with more fervor than ever in my life. I am truly thankful to my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ for this year.
A Different Kind of Resolution
My wife read an article about closing out the year writing letters to Jesus and placing them in your stockings before packing them away for the year. We thought it would be a good tradition to try out, so we all wrote letters of resolution to Jesus. In that letter I wrote my sincere commitments to serve and know Christ. It included overall statements, such as the desire to serve God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I also wrote practical things, such as continuing my daily time of reading the Bible, praying and studying.
So my public New Year’s Resolutions this year look more like changes in habit that I would like to implement in my life.
2013 New Year’s Resolutions
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring)
I thought it appropriate to use this image and quote taken from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring)
2012 New Year’s Resolution(s)
Ever hear that song, “The Future’s So Bright” by Timbuk 3? [Video] The catch phrase goes, “the future’s so bright I gotta wear shades.” That is a little of what I feel like looking forward to 2012. We have taken some excellent steps towards becoming debt free, I have a great job, I’m training for …
2011 New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year! It is once again that time; time to make resolutions, promises and goals that we’ll never keep. I’m sure all of the health clubs out there love January because of the most likely number one resolution made: lose weight. I considered skipping this year, but I’ve been doing this for several years …
2010 Resolutions : Looking Back
It is New Year’s Eve 2010 as I am writing this. I figured I’d take just a moment to look back on the resolutions I made for this year to see how I did. 1. Work on my relationship with God Check! Though I can’t really take credit. I was discussing this with my wife …
2009 New Year’s Resolutions Update
January 1st of this year I posted a fairly aggressive list of New Year’s Resolutions. So how did I do? Well, I’ve only really succeeded at one of the resolutions. I guess that is better than none, right? It is now coming to the close of the year 2009 so I figured I’d list them …