Living Healthfully: Why Resolutions Fail {And it's NOT why you think}

This isn't about will power alone.

Resolutions don't fail because the vast majority of us don't have enough self-control or motivation to succeed; resolutions fail because at the root of it, they aren't deeply planted in our hearts.

Sometimes we think we want things a whole lot more than we actually do; even harder to consider but also brimming with truth -- sometimes we think we value certain things when we actually hold them as ideals.

To read about how to make and keep a solid resolution, click HERE.

Five-Minute Friday: Open

You are stretched out and wide open,
sprawling with days yet untouched
by my own clumsy hands
and I want to fall
without abandon
into You.

You are time and no time
and newness and old
and fresh starts and rich history
and I want to live like
I've been invited into Your eternity

Where new years and old years and
no years
blend together
and my only resolution
is to love You
without abandon.

Starting here.

The Bigger Picture: Beyond Resolutions

I ignored God's voice last week.

{That was horrifyingly hard to admit.}

The very voice I've spent so much time trying to hear, I dismissed in a matter of minutes.

My sister had shared with me that one of the sweetest members at my Curves was going to be spending Christmas alone before venturing off to see her family after the holiday.

Though I didn't know this member well at all -- I've probably only actually seen her twice -- I felt the Spirit move my heart to invite her to Christmas Eve celebrations with John's family.

It was one of those promptings I couldn't ignore ... but I could easily reason for why I shouldn't act on it:

It wasn't my place to do the inviting because we weren't hosting.
My husband didn't seem supportive when I mentioned it.
I had only spoken to her twice ever, so why would she want to come to our celebration?

I reasoned myself right out of listening to His voice, the tug on my heart to love another person in the way Jesus would love her.

Though I reasoned myself out of it, that didn't stop His voice from resounding.

I thought about her during our festivities, wishing she were there us, wishing I hadn't talked myself out of obeying His call.

Maybe I was being too emotional, I thought; perhaps, I was feeling terribly for no reason -- that I had no responsibility to do any inviting since I wasn't hosting.

But that's a straight-up lie.

I proclaim Jesus. I say I love Him. So I have a responsibility to be His hands, to be His feet, to love His people.

"Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’" Matthew 25:45

This year, I'm going beyond the typical resolutions I usually make.

This year, I'm resolving to be rather than do.

I'm vowing to be embrace and become and live out the person He designed me to be.

It's probably not going to look like much, and that will be hard for a perfectionist who likes to see tangible results; I won't have a laundry list of accomplishments at the end of the year.

My resume probably won't grow substantially or impressively.

I may not sport a slimmer dress size.

And my house may not even become any less messy or better organized.

But I hope to have a fuller, tidier heart.

A heart that listens, hears His voice and then says yes, no reasoning involved.

{I suspect I will be making this pledge yearly for the rest of my life.}