I Love New

I love new. There is something so clean and pure and appealing about newness. I love the stiff binding on a new journal; I love a new blank, ink-free page. I love morning. I love the emerging of the next season; the beginning of the school year, the start of a new book. I love new styles in fashion, and new shoes and new purses. I love new templates, new ideas, and new friends. I love new foods and new restaurants. And I absolutely love New Year’s Day. Ahhhh, the commencement of a new year is upon us. With it are the accompanying events: the Granola Bowl (my husband was mud encrusted, smelly, and happier than you can imagine playing football in the rain); the New Year’s Eve karaoke party at the Young’s (at which, thanks to my parents who never let me listen to any secular music -a fact I am usually grateful for, I could only sing a few songs from the 80’s that I heard at the community pool…lovely, to be sure – of all time periods to know music from…but, I digress); and finally last but not least (drum roll, please) the New Year’s resolutions! Something not so new: my love/hate relationship with the New Year’s resolutions. I love to harness the energy and incentive that comes with the fresh new year, and therefore, set numerous goals to achieve within that year. But, I also have had the unpleasant experience of not keeping resolutions within weeks, maybe even days of making them. This year I realized that both my love and my hate (slightly overstated for effect…more like a frustrations with) for resolutions can be rooted in pride…my old enemy. If I make a resolution to do many things, pride can be revealed in the fact that I am overestimating what I am capable of. It very well could also reveal self-sufficiency as I muster up the energy to change. Could it even be worldly to use one day of the year to resolve what should be perhaps, a daily process for me as a Christian? On the other hand, if I avoid making resolutions, pride can manifest itself in the fact that I don’t want to fail. It would be easier to just not try and thus avoid the humiliation of failure. So, it is with an awareness of pride lurking that I make resolutions this year. I want to be intentional in my growth in godliness and New Year’s provides a specific time to think about specific ways to grow. I know that I am not going to perfectly keep my resolutions. It is yet another reminder that there is only One who perfectly carries out a perfect plan. New Year’s resolutions can be an opportunity to grow in humility as I seek God about what He would have me attempt this year, ask for His help to do it, and when I fail, be freshly reminded about my frailty and His power. What I love most that is new are His mercies every morning; great is His faithfulness, not my own.