What are you going to do this year? Are you going to take each day as it comes? There is some wisdom in that IF you are paying attention to what road you are on. The person who goes through life drifting from day to day with no thought about where they are going, well, there is no telling where they will end up. 

Will you do things to make your marriage stronger or weaker? Are you going to be deeper in debt this time next year or out of it? Will you be healthier or sicker a year from now? A better/stronger/more centered person this time next year? Are you going to grow spiritually? Are you going to become more joyful, generous, hopeful and loving this year? Good stuff is not likely to happen without a bit of intention and planning.

Across the country, 100 million Americans will make new year’s resolutions and surveys tell us that within the first week about 90% of those will give up on them. What are the most popular topics for resolutions, year in and year out?

• Quit drinking/Drink less alcohol
• Eat healthy food’
• Get a job/better job
• Get fit
• Lose weight   
• Get out of debt
• Manage stress
• Quit smoking
• Save money

Worthy goals, one and all. But why do these worthy goals remain intentions and not get turned into actions? Because they are too general. The best goals are realistic, achievable and specific. And I would add one more: The very best goals are ones made in conversation with God. They take into account what God is calling you to be and to do.

Here is a model* for making changes in your life that has staying power. It takes some commitment, but it is worth it.

• Pay attention to your life. Think about the past year. Identify the high and low points. Where was your connection with God during each of those times? Were you aware of God’s presence?
• Express gratitude for blessings, learnings, advancements, and challenges overcome
• Seek peace over the low points—forgiveness, resolution, awareness of how it has changed you.
• Look at the year ahead and the big ad little things you already know that are coming. Ponder how to go through those events making them holy; living them to the Glory of God.
• Pray about the coming year; acknowledging feelings, expectations, hopes, and fears. Pray for God’s will to be done in your life.
• Jot down a list of goals for the coming year.
• Then the next day, write a new list (WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE OLD LIST.) Don’t try to re-create the first list. Write, what for that day, are your goals for the coming year.
• Then on DAYS THREE THROUGH THIRTY DO THE SAME without looking at your old lists. In February then, go through all the lists, and pick the 3-5 things that have been there most consistently (so the urgency of the current day doesn’t rule the year.) Set all the others aside for now.
• Pick the one thing of those 3-5 that you want to start with. It might be the most important, but then it might be the easiest. You choose. Your reasons are the only ones that matter. Give yourself two months to focus on that one change exclusively.
• Consider what are the resources at your disposal that will help you achieve your goal
• Plot out the steps necessary for achieving it
• When that change has been incorporated into your life, go back to your list of 3-5 things and choose what is next. If none of those things seem that important any more, then start the process over making a new set of 30 days of lists while you continue to maintain change #1.
• Periodically reward yourself for sticking with it, acknowledging to yourself and others how far you have come.

I wish for you a good year for 2012, filled with happiness, faith and great joy. May your life be a holy example of what God can do.

Blessings to you from Pastor Karla

*This model of making resolutions into actions mostly comes from Bishop Mike Rinehart as presented in his podcast http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bishop-mike-rineharts-podcast/id444755686.