New Year's Resolutions

It's definitely a holiday season! Last week we celebrated Christmas, and this upcoming week, we'll be celebrating a new year!

Have you ever thought about making New Years resolutions? A resolution is a decision you make to change something about your life. For example, it could be to eat more vegetables, listen to your parents, make better grades, or play less games. Whatever it is, a resolution helps to improve your life. What are some resolutions that you want to make for this upcoming year?

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When thinking about our resolutions, it's also important to make resolutions about our spiritual growth. Improving our spiritual life lasts much longer than improving our physical life because the results will last forever! They will benefit us long after our physical body fades away. So making spiritual resolutions might mean that we decide to read the Bible more, pray for our non-Christian friends more, or even find ways to serve at church more. The best thing about spiritual resolutions is that you can make them at ANY time. You don't have to wait until a new year! Because Christ is with us every day and at every moment, He delights in us when we daily choose to live the way He has told us to live. 

Let me give you an example. Imagine a time when someone said something that made you very upset. Maybe it was mean or hurtful. Naturally, we would want to be angry or try to seek revenge. However becoming angry or seeking revenge is part of our sinful nature! We have to decide not to live by our sinful nature, but live by Christ's nature. Instead of being filled with anger or revenge, we might decide to show gentleness, kindness, and love to the person who said something that made us upset. In that way, we are able to share Christ's love through our actions.

So this new year, I would suggest to make one resolution: that we would decide to follow Christ's instructions every day and in every situation!

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