Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024 and welcome back to school! It is a new year and an opportunity for new beginnings, but really every day is the opportunity for a new beginning. On New Year’s Eve, I was in Trader Joe’s and remarked to the cashier how busy they were that afternoon. Her reply was they were busy but not nearly as busy as they would be on January 2nd. She told me January 2nd is their busiest day of the year because everyone makes New Year’s Resolutions and comes in to buy vegetables and salads, but that trend does not last. From everything I read, New Year’s Resolutions rarely continue past the month of January for most people. My thoughts about resolutions are that people set grandiose expectations and then get discouraged when they can’t meet those expectations daily. Good intentions end up producing discouragement.
During break, I read an article about habits and the power of small habits turning into great accomplishments. For example, reading just 20 minutes a day adds up to reading about 1.8 million words over the course of the year. 1.8 million! You can translate that to any kind of an activity. Practicing an instrument for 20 minutes a day, exercising for 20 minutes a day, praying for 20 minutes a day, anything for 20 minutes a day is a small commitment for the day with huge results by the end of the year. If 20 minutes is too big of a commitment, just 10 minutes is better than 0 minutes. Reading 10 minutes a day is still close to 1 million words in a year. Spending 10 minutes in prayer each day gives you 60 hours of time focused on your relationship with God. Missing a day or two here and there isn’t a big deal and shouldn’t deter you from abandoning your new habit altogether. Small habits can produce life changing results. What small habit could you add to enhance your life or the lives of your children?
Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already – you can see it now! Isaiah 43:19a GNT