You want the skinny on resolutions? 45% of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions and a mere 8% of us are successful in achieving our resolutions. Terrible odds, I say.
Several years ago the girls in my small group taught me a new approach to resolutions. Instead of making a resolution, we chose a word for our year. While we enjoyed giving vision to our year—the year of freedom or healthiness or self-control—we have since shifted our focus and began the practice of choosing a different kind of word. What we wanted (and needed) was to believe more of God. Our leader suggested we all consider an attribute of God that we wanted to know and experience more—something in His character that we struggled to believe.
After much contemplation, the girls returned with words like steadfast, good, victorious, and “the source of joy”.
We took the list of words and began to scour Scripture, finding verses that would remind us and assure us of the qualities each of us wanted to rediscover.
After finding the “perfect verse” for each quality, we wrote Scripture on notecards and presented them to each other the following week.
Good. I chose the word good.
For the past year, I’ve had verses, handwritten by dear friends, tacked to my wall and taped to my bathroom mirror as a reminder that God is good and that I can trust that He will be good to me.
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11, ESV
“Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; with Him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning.” James 1:17, HCSB
This year I experienced the goodness and generosity of God in new ways. He has, no doubt, been good to me all along—even when I couldn’t feel it. Choosing the word good taught me to look for goodness and I found it in Him.
Next week we turn in our words for 2015.
I’m choosing generous. I resolve to look for and see His generosity all around me.
What about you?
What attribute of God would you like to believe and experience more in 2015?
Amy Jacobs is a marketing specialist for Lifeway. In her spare time, she blogs at Gather and Build.
