New starts are opportunities to reflect—this month, on the year that is coming to a close, and what we’d like to do differently in the year that’s to come. That, in part, is the reason people make New Year’s resolutions. They are goals for the coming year. When a new year comes, we want new results. Resolutions can be a great tool to encourage us to make necessary changes, but they can also be discouraging if we don’t do the things that we said we’d do. We feel like failures. (Sometimes by January 10^th!) Instead, what if we approach the year with intentionality? We can still set goals, but intentionality has little to do with outcomes. Author, Leah Heffner, describes it better than I can, “Being intentional is not a recipe for a perfect outcome, but rather a willingness to be there through the good and the bad, to say sorry and offer forgiveness, to model, teach, explain, and live out your words with your actions, and to be deliberate in the process. Over and over again.” Perhaps that’s what we’ve been missing all along. We thought making a resolution was about getting a different result. Really, it’s about having a different process that we’re dedicated to; being intentional.

As you have fun this winter, take advantage of teachable moments while you play:

• Sledding-The trip down the hill is fun, but sometimes climbing back up is the pits! It is tiring to make that trek over and over again. This is a picture of what life is like—sometimes we coast along easily and other times we have to work really hard and it’s exhausting. As we trek over the fun terrain and the more difficult, exhausting terrain God is with us.
• Snow Angels-It’s hard to make a perfect snow angel. The minute we try to get out of it, is the minute our body messes it up. You can try to maneuver yourself in any direction, but it’s still going to come out flawed. We also cannot be perfect in life. We are only declared righteous in God’s sight by what Christ did on the cross on our behalf. We can’t maneuver in any direction to make our lives be without flaws. Only Christ can do that for our lives.
• Ice Skating-As we glide across the ice and try to maintain balance, we see a picture of just how precarious we can be. Some of us fall on skates more than others, but all of us fall into sin each day. We cannot “skate” through with ease forever. We are by nature sinful and live in a fallen world where we fall into sin often. Thanks be to God for His forgiveness each time we fall!
• Drinking Cocoa-When it’s cold outside, this treat is just the ticket! It’s what we’re not…warm! Great by itself, but cocoa can also be enhanced by toppings like marshmallows or whipped cream—or both. As we drink it, we can remember God is what we are not. He doesn’t just love in a way that’s different from how we love other people; He is love in His very nature!
• Snow Days-When the ground is so covered with snow that we can’t go to school (or work), we have an opportunity to take a breath. Sometimes that’s a rare treat in our busy lives. The ground covered in snow is also a reminder that though our sins are like scarlet, God has made them whiter than snow. (Isaiah 1:18) It’s hard to imagine our sinful lives could ever be so white!

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 charges us to talk about faith as we go about life, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Will you resolve with me to be intentional, to dedicate ourselves to being deliberate to be the people we want to be? Not for the results, but because we know that we need to say sorry and offer forgiveness regularly. Because we know that we need to stick to the modeling, teaching, explaining and living out what we’ve said we’d do as followers of Christ—to talk about faith things when we sit at home and when we walk along the way; when we miss 75 days straight and need lots of extra grace to start again, when we plum forget and when we need to pay better attention to see how life intersects with faith things. God, help us to keep at it this year!