Resolving Not to Resolve...

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner has "Show Us Your Life" Fridays. I've never participated before, but I thought it might be fun today. :)

This week, the topic is New Year's Resolutions and Goals.

Like the greater population of Earth, I was once a firm maker-and-breaker of such goals. I did the typical stuff...weight loss...exercise...you name it...for about a week, and then I quit until the following January.

A few years back, I decided to skip resolutions and goals entirely and instead I made a lengthy list of covenants and commitments. Twenty-five of them, if I remember correctly. Some were specific, daily things...like flossing and reading through the Bible in a year. Others were now-and-then commitments. I stuck to that list very firmly, even weekly checking in with an accountability partner, because I considered them a sacred promise between God and me.

The next year (the year I turned 30), I increased it to 30 covenants and commitments, and even the very fact that they were commitments I'd made to the Lord wasn't enough to keep me steadfast with them. I'd worn myself out on my own commitments.

This year, I resolved not to resolve. I made some guidelines for myself to bring back some good disciplines that had faded a bit lately. I am back on track with daily FOCUSED devotions. I'm back on track with five days of exercise...not four...or three and a half. I added a discipline to write for a half hour a day.

But mostly, what I have learned about myself is that my well-intentioned goals, resolutions, covenants, and commitments have put me in boxes that keep me from allowing God to be at work in my life. I am a good rule-follower, but if God would happen to want to do something outside what I'd prescribed, He'd be out of luck.

So this year is His. I'm disciplining myself in the areas of study, exercise and writing, but He takes it from there. If I need to loosen up some of my legalistic patterns, He's got the room to teach me how. If I need to buckle down on something, I have the time for Him to help me make it happen.

It's strange for a very ordered, structured person like myself to NOT have a list to follow. What will happen? Who knows!?!? I guess I'll find out come December 31st!

How about you? Resolution maker? Already broken yours? What's your style?