Be Better - 2015

As we ring in the New Year in just a few hours, everyone is thinking about what they are going to do in 2015 to improve their lives. "I'll work out every day!" "I am starting a diet!" "No more caffeine for me!" and other such statements are commonly heard in the days leading up to the New Year celebrations.

But how many of us are choosing resolutions that we will stick with? Resolutions that will actually help us to be better friends, lovers, parents, people, or servants of God? Or resolutions we will actually stick to? When thinking about what I wanted to commit to in 2015, I put my relationship with God as the main goal of each resolution, and I found ways to remind and encourage myself so I would be more likely to follow through on each of them.

Here's my "Be Better" list for 2015:

1) Read the Bible in a year - I've wanted to do this for a long time, but never committed! I found a great reading plan online (it was very difficult to pick from all the options) that seemed to be the most sensible, flowing, and easy-to-read in terms of how the readings were divided up. Starting tomorrow I'll dive into that project!

2) Pray every morning when I wake up and every night before I go to sleep - I struggle with this every single day. I wake up, check my email, scroll through some form of social media, then get going with my day. My aim is to replace my daily social media scroll with prayer. Whether it is ten minutes or one minute, just taking this time every morning and night to work on my relationship with God.

3) No more cursing - This year I have been fortunate enough to have a great influence in my life when it comes to my language, Liv. I've never heard a foul word cross her tongue and she has inspired me to be better with my own language. Gained from a few years of dating a sailor, my bad language is a negative trait I cannot wait to be rid of, so this year I am making a conscious effort to cut out that harmful vocabulary.

4) Be more conscious of my consumerism - I just cleaned out my closet a couple days ago and I am ashamed of my shopping problem and the excessive amount of clothing I have in my closet. I filled three garbage bags full of over 100 articles of clothing or accessories that I will be donating in an effort to not only get rid of my own excess, but also to give to those in need. In addition to that purge, I have also made a commitment to not buy any clothes, shoes or accessories this year. I imagine this will be the most difficult of my resolutions, but I hope to use the money that I will save on clothes a bit more wisely.

5) One hour of exercise every day - The standard New Year's resolution. Where this one differs for me is that my resolution is based in the fact that our bodies are temples for God. We are to treat our bodies well and keep them healthy, which is why a better diet and exercise are part of my resolutions this year. When we neglect our bodies or feed them junk food, that is like allowing our churches to become dusty, disarrayed, and rundown. Our bodies are temples that God created and we should treat them with respect.

There you have it! My "Be Better" list of resolutions for 2015! What are your resolutions for 2015?

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ~1 Corinthians 6:19

Pax,

Kay