The wisdom about ‘New Year Resolutions’ seems to
be:

# they’re a good idea;

# don’t make too many;

# ensure they’re realizable;

# cover the major areas of your life.

Following a review
of my counseling practice I’ve listed ten recipes for wholeness.
(They’ll be appended to my sermon next Sunday on Facing the New
Year: see our home page)….

‘Bless the Lord… all that is within me’ (Psalm
103:1)

In your relationship to:

GOD: be prayerful – dependence/helplessness are necessary
prerequisites for a healthy spirituality. How about a thorough
spiritual check-up this year?

OTHERS: be helpful – even to your enemies. Why not
communicate encouragement to someone every day?

MIND: read and think about something ennobling/creative
each day. Start the day with Scripture; start the year with Eugene
Peterson’s ‘Take and Read’.

FEELINGS: ‘feel your feelings’ and express them –
whether fear, guilt, grief, rage, shame, anxiety – to God and
to a spiritual director/ counselor.

ACTIONS: be generous to those who need a helping
hand – without thought of reward or praise – and ‘right some wrongs’
in your world

SUCCESSES: be thankful – many of them were the result
of good fortune rather than your cleverness; ‘count your blessings’
regularly.

TROUBLES: be trustful – for some reason God invites
our maturing through adversity. What you do to life is more important
than what life does to you.

SEXUALITY: follow the Maker’s instructions, avoiding
the extremes of scrupulosity or permissiveness. If God’s good
gift of sex (or celibacy) isn’t good for you, that can be fixed!

TIME: own your past, then, if necessary, disown it.
Accept what can’t be changed. Attend to your dreams. (It’s never
too late to have a happy childhood).

CONSCIENCE: clean the slate each day – don’t live
with anything that will rob you of love, joy, peace…

Shalom! Rowland Croucher