The Resolve: Start Now & Start Again by Amber Rhodes

Sound familiar? For me, that was the broken record that my tired heart played time and time again, year in and year out. The sayings were definitely on repeat:

• “Out with the old, in with the new.”
• “New Year, new me.”
• “Let it go, move on.”

Everything you could think of, I said it and tried to do it.

But New Year's resolutions never stuck with me. It was almost like a replica of my dating life. It looked good, sounded good, but it just never ended up going anywhere. I couldn’t go a month or two without backtracking and back sliding. There was always a distraction or an excuse to get me from sticking to my resolutions. Yes, it’s an exciting feeling to set goals, aspirations and dreams! Yes, towards the end of the year, we are “decluttering” our life after enjoying the Christmas season. Yes, we’re cleaning up our phone contacts, removing old pictures, or even getting a new phone with a new number altogether. We are crossing things out of our lives that we deem no longer serve us - people, places and environments.  We get in a great mood with high hopes. We attend church service New Year’s Eve night to place a stamp on our intentions that maybe next year will be the "year of change."

With our pen to our new organizer and journals, we add our list of goals:

• Stop yelling at my kids
• Run for 30 minutes a day
• Be a better mom
• Read the Bible more
• Go to church regularly
• Invest in my kids future
• Start my business

And then, suddenly, January passes and find ourselves still holding on to the unhealthy habits and behavior we promised to let go. Compromises start creeping in. We start falling back into that old way of living and thinking. May I encourage you, momma?:

Start Now and Start Again.

Scripture promises us that in this life, there will be trouble (John 16:33). There will be unexpected circumstances and temptations that can derail us from our goals and cause distractions. The minute we are up on a mountain, something may come to throw us right back down again. The enemy comes and whispers lies to distract us from everything we have planned. We become exhausted trying to battle the negative thoughts from our past and trying to figure out how to continue walking the path that God has laid out for us. 

Find joy in the test.

• If we want to be a better mom, we have to know that we may be tested in order to bring out your “better mom” qualities (e.g. patience, restraint, compassion)
• If we want to hit the gym every week, then we must know we may be tempted with offers that will take up that gym time.
• If we want to finally start our nonprofit, know that we may find discouragement from several “no’s” at the beginning of our process.

And, when we find that our strength is not strong enough to carry our big hopes, remember that it is our Savior who helps define and establish our steps with the plans we make according to His will for our lives. (Proverbs 16:9 and Mark 11:24) This means, He helps us make the right plans for our lives and also helps direct our steps in order to reach that plan. 

The best part? If we ever find ourselves stagnant and unfocused in the middle of the year, we can resolve to start over - that very day! We don’t have to wait another new year to get back on track!

One thing I am truly grateful for is that God doesn’t go by a calendar year. He’s not phased by the New Year's Resolutions we give ourselves on December 31st and January 1st. No, His time is not our time. His calendar is not our carnal calendar. He doesn’t throw us away when we falter on February 19th, May 2nd or September 27th. No, God wants us to resolve to start and resolve to start again. He wants us to get back up and start over. We can find comfort that God understands even our fall, as long as we get back up. In Proverbs 24:26, it is written:

As we enter another year - I encourage you to really seek God for this season of your life. God’s list for you this year may certainly differ from anything you or I could have even imagined, but the Lord wants better for us.  He wants our lives to be blessed. He wants us to start that podcast or book on overcoming challenges as a solo mom. He wants us to be more intentional about our bodies and healthy living. He wants us to join a network of believers that can sharpen and strengthen us. He wants to use our lives to impact others in a big way. He wants to show others how big He is by doing great things in our lives. He wants us to keep showing up when the loan was rejected. Show up the day after we yelled at the kid. Try again next Sunday after we failed to wake up for this week's Sunday worship service.

One moment of pause, or a bad day, should not sabotage the momentum we are trying to gain to change our life for the better. We are His, and since grace and mercy is our portion, we can keep showing up even if we failed at it yesterday.

As this new year begins, let’s count the blessings of making it another year! And as we put our pens to the paper and letters to the journal - let’s resolve to start now and start again.

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