New Year's Resolutions
(Taken from "The Pastor's Desk" by Alan Smith )

January, 2006


This is the time of year when we often take stock of our lives and determine if there is something that we would like to change in the new year -- an old habit we would like to break or a new habit we would like to establish.

My wife Valle is determined that after the rich food and feasting through the holiday season, that my New Year's Resolution will be to be more careful with eating in the new year to try to shed some of the pounds that I have put on over the last few months. I'm not quite sure that it counts for someone else to make a resolution for you, however.
Without making the resolution yourself, the change probably won't be too lasting.

While people around the world make resolutions at the first of the year, followers of Christ have more than one opportunity for a new start each year.

We are called to take time for reflection on our lives and to repent (see with new eyes) the things we called to do as followers of Christ and the things we have done instead when we come to the Communion table each month. We have the opportunity to remember that we have taken upon us the name of Christ and promised to follow him and to look at our lives and see if that covenant is making the difference that it should in our every day life. People have written about modern Christians and the ease they have in living one way on Sunday morning and another on Saturday night. May our resolution be to be God's sons and daughters all the time in 2006.