Sandra Fischer - Faithwriter

 

New Year’s Resolutions

 The New Year is at the gate; the clock is ticking loud and clear.

I’ll need to hurry if I’m to keep the resolutions I made last year!

 So, have you made New Year’s Resolutions for 2026? Or are you still in remorse for the 2025 ones you left in the dust?

Research credits the Babylonians as the folks who started it all. The fact that it spread throughout the world indicates it may have merit in either plaguing or inspiring people. Americans follow the practice in large numbers and statistics indicate three of the most popular are: losing weight, spending more time with family, and getting physically fit. Making resolutions to improve oneself is a worthy goal and I can attest to it. I’ve tried it several times.

Take the one about losing weight, for example. I’ve tried losing weight every now and again over my eighty-eight years. I have a diamond lifetime membership pin from Weight Watchers to prove it. And I could be their poster woman because I have watched my weight—I’ve watched it go and I’ve watched it come back. I’ve lost enough weight so that if it could be accumulated and reconstructed into another human, I would have a full-sized twin or even enough for a triplet. It’s an obvious fact. No matter whatever diet I tried, the weight I lost came back and found me. So much for that resolution for me.

Spending more time with my family is a challenging one too. My husband is either scrolling on his iPad, watching sports, or dozing in between. He talks more to Alexa than to me. What about more time with our three daughters? They are all busy with their jobs or various hobbies. And since our grand girls are all grown up now, I must compete for their attention via text, Instagram, or Tik Tok. They relegate responding to me after their boyfriends, college mates, and their hundreds of other followers. Sometimes they send me a quick emoji heart to say they love me. And when the family does manage to get together, everyone is busy checking their devices to stay connected with the digital world. So, check off trying to spend more time with my family; it’s a deflating resolution.

Finally, as I look at the fitness resolution, I laugh so hard I might achieve a bit of toning from internal jogging. At my age resolving to get fit would be like signing up to climb Mt. Everest or enrolling in an Ironman event. Millions of fat cells lay claim to much of my body and scream at the thought. Besides, gravity has taken over, pulling everything downward. Body parts that used to be in their original place sag in despair or have migrated to other places, making it impossible to fit them back in place. However, my husband says I can still take pride in my hour-glass figure, because all the sand has shifted to the bottom.

But the fitness resolution could have potential value if I applied it in a convoluted way by firming up my character. This would mean ridding myself of harmful, repercussive exercises that I tend to do— like jumping to conclusions, stretching the truth, pushing the envelope, shooting off my mouth, and running with the crowd. A de-tox resolution for my mind and attitude might serve me better than a sculptured, toned body and could be beneficial for all my relationships, including family.

What to do? I’ve decided to ditch the personal assessment and resolution path based on an entire year, but I will attempt to do my best each day as it comes. According to God’s providence, the present is what He gives. So, rather than lumping a full year of aspirations into one basket and trying to fulfill it, I plan to “carpe diem,” so the day won’t seize me instead.