Resolve, Wisdom, Wonder and a Single Mom’s New Year’s Resolutions (Again!)

Another year has come and gone, and it’s time to make my New Year’s Resolutions – Again.

“Again?” You ask.

“Again,” I say (and I sigh).

The “again” part of this (and the sigh that accompanies it!) is a result of my realizing for the first time (How slow am I???) that I have had many of these same resolutions for YEARS now.

Okay, technically I have realized that before – don’t think I’m THAT slow! 😉

But this year it’s different. Something is different. Other years I  really believed that THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE YEAR I CHANGED – magically!

This year instead, as I make my resolutions I realize that THIS IS GOING TO BE THE YEAR I MUST RESOLVE TO CHANGE.

But I thought change was just supposed to happen magically at the start of the New Year! I don’t want to hear about Resolve??? I want to stamp my foot and clench my fists and put my on grumpy-pouty face.

But I am a grown up, so when I’m done (Yep, I did actually do the grumpy-pouty face!) this year, I have a sense of…Resolve (groan). Can you hear how little I want that? How desperately I want to wave my little magic wand and zap life magically into place?

Resolve sounds crazy when talking about resolutions. Resolve? What does that have to do with a resolution? (Grumpy, pouty again!) The New Year is about hope and excitement and change and newness and joy and wonder, certainly not about resolve!

Resolve sounds boring. Resolve sounds responsible. Resolve sounds – like Life. Resolve is…

Eeeewwww! Resolve is WORK! Just what I want!

This year (sigh) there is a sense of…Resolve (groan).

I will Resolve to Work – or will I?

Maybe Resolve means something else.

Maybe Resolve is really about – Wisdom.

Maybe it’s about finally, Finally, FINALLY growing in Wisdom.

Maybe? Just maybe, this Wisdom is a good sign, a sign that I am finally maturing into the person the Lord has designed me to be.

Wisdom. Maybe for the first time I am mature enough (not just old enough!) to know – to KNOW – that I must Resolve to Grow, and in that Growing is Wisdom, and in that Wisdom, there is actually, surprisingly – Wonder after all!

Wonder in that, as I grow Wiser…

I grow Stronger in ways more powerful than physical strength.
I grow Smarter in facing my mistakes AND my triumphs.
I understand that Love is an action requiring Beautiful Resolve, rather than a condition to fall for.
I learn to use my new gift of Resolve and act out Love, Unconditionally.
I bravely assert that Unconditional Love doesn’t mean giving up ME.
I hold in awe that Unconditional Love also means Love for ME by ME.
I take to my heart that with Resolve comes Peace.

And maybe, just maybe Resolve sounds less like work.

Maybe, just maybe Resolve sounds like – Strength.

Maybe, just maybe it sounds like – Intelligence.

Maybe, just maybe it sounds like – Beauty

Maybe, just maybe it sounds like – Unconditional Love for All, deserving and less so.

Maybe, just maybe it sounds like – Peace.

And Maybe, just maybe Resolve now sounds like the Wisdom and Wonder, like the hope and excitement and change and newness and joy and Absolute Wonder that comes with the New Year after all.

And maybe, just maybe, that sigh is now a Sigh of Resolve cradled in Strength and Intelligence and Beauty and Love and Contentment and Peace.

And definitely, just definitely, that is a New Year’s resolution worth my full Resolve.

What will you Resolve to do this New Year?

photo credit

• PS For my non-sappy New Year’s Resolutions – Click Here. (They will be posted later 😉 )

God Bless…