New Year New You

The new year is hours away and if you live outside the United States then you may have already celebrated it. If you're like me then you have probably spent the last few days reflecting on the old year and the hope that a new year can bring. The new year is the symbol of promise for the future, but part of that promise is our willingness to commit to a better future. We can do this is a number of ways, but the most common is resolutions. Personally, I don't like resolutions because they generally are happy thoughts that rarely turn into a changed life. This year I thought I would try something different. I asked myself what characteristics or attributes did I want to have next year? I thought about how I would like to continue my pursuit of maturing in my faith and then I thought about what characteristics God would want to see in me. 

I concluded that the characteristics of a mature Christian consisted of a few principles: honor your responsibilities, connect with God, cultivate a grateful heart, talk to God in prayer, remember what you have learned, and meditate on God's word. We need to honor our responsibilities and do our best to complete each task each day, which might include going to work or feeding your family. We need to connect with a God while disconnecting from everything else. Too often it is easy to become preoccupied in the things of this world, especially social media, and forget that we are not of this world. Each day we should connect with God and enter into time with Him through the exploration of  His word. When we enter into God's word it becomes easier to cultivate a grateful heart because we can see how blessed we truly are. Documenting our gratitude provides us with a reminder on days that are harder to feel grateful. In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6). God doesn't want us to be anxious, but to cry out to Him with thankful hearts. God hears our prayers and answers them according to our circumstances. It is in our circumstances that we learn God's greatest lessons and these lessons should be remembered so we don't have to learn them again! Each night we should go to sleep meditating on God's word lest we forget.

The second aspect is characteristics God would want to see in us. The characteristic I chose to focus on is health, after all our bodies are to be our temples. With this verse in mind, I thought about three areas of health that would honor God with our bodies: 1) be active, 2) drink enough water, and 3) eat healthy. Notice that I didn't make specific resolutions, but decided on an overall goal of better health. Each day I make specific decisions that meet these goals without beating myself up if I don't meet larger resolutions. One day I might decide to eat more vegetables rather than limiting my caloric intake, which is honestly a lot harder to accomplish. I combined both better health and the characteristics of a mature Christian into a daily planner page. I intend to use this daily page to document my progress toward a better me this new year. I have included a link to the download in the description below the picture shown.

Christian Planner Page

Happy new year! May you experience all of God's blessings!