Did You Make a New Year’s Resolution to
Be a New You?
Placing a new calendar on the wall gives each of us feeling of a fresh start—2017 brings with it a blank canvas for exciting experiences and opportunities to do things new. Approximately half of Americans made a New Year’s resolution when the ball fell, with the top resolutions being to lose weight and making life- or self-improvements. Were you one of them?
These are good and worthy goals. After all, Scripture refers to our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), giving our bodies a sense of value bigger than ourselves, deserving of both honor and care. To show concern is to show respect for who we are.
But are we going about these resolutions the wrong way? Forty-two percent of people fail to accomplish their resolution each year, resulting in no physical change with added mental frustration to boot.
Our Sunday and Wednesday School students just finished learning about God’s creation of the world in their Jesus Storybook Bible. In it, Sally Lloyd-Jones writes of Adam and Eve, “When they opened their eyes, the first thing they ever saw was God’s face. And when God saw them he was like a new dad. ‘You look like me,’ he said. ‘You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever made!’ God loved them with all of his heart. And they were lovely because he loved them.”
How do we define our value? What actually motivates us? Is it our external shape or our internal makeup?
Perhaps if we really believed what God sees in us we would be more naturally attentive to our spiritual, emotional, and physical health as the fulfillment of who we are. It would bring joy rather than exhaustion, and the reflection in the mirror would be one to celebrate rather than criticize.
YOU are the most beautiful thing God has ever seen.
And with that truth echoing in your heart, let it motor all you do. Let it drive your time in Scripture and fuel workouts of your choosing. Beyond that, let it motivate you to throw kindness around and celebrate others with all the joy of New Year’s confetti.
We’re connecting this self-value to everyday life this New Year’s by collecting for Simon Says Give – Sioux Falls. This organization was started by a seven-year-old with the sole intent of making everyone feel special. To do this, they create “Birthday in a Bag” packs so that local children whose family budget does not allow room for a birthday party receives one, letting children know that they are beautiful and that they matter, and inspiring them to better value their own life and health. You can join in the fun by contributing any of these items, or provide a financial gift labelled Simon Says Give and we’ll make sure to have all the items for completed bags. Then our Sunday and Wednesday School children will assemble them in a “We Love Because God First Loved Us” party.
You, just as you are, are amazing—the most beautiful thing God has ever seen.
Maybe if we all resolve to live with that as our catalyst we will love ourselves and others better, and 2017 will be defined by feelings of success.
Melissa Nesdahl
Director of Faith Formation