Taste and see that the Lord is good.Psalm 34:8

Ah, New Year Resolutions! On January first we resolve to eat more broccoli AND kale, take those 10,000 steps, uphill, no matter what the weather and only watch educational television. We resolve to go on a juice fast, train for that bike marathon and lose at least 10 pounds by spring. After Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year excesses, we say with some determination, “This time I’m going to stick to my guns.” Um, hmmm. Truthfully, at least for myself, by the end of the first or second week of January we’re back to sneaking cookies, digging into a perfectly cooked steak paired with sweet potato fries and binge watching the Cooking Channel. “Fix me “resolutions are doomed to failure and frustration. They are mindlessly made and then quickly broken. Why set myself up for the devil’s nagging accusations beforehand and his demoralization afterward?

I do want to start this year off well, but more than that I want it to end well. When 2020 ends I would like to reflect on the year having counted all the blessings God has showered on me and my loved ones. I want to write a very, very long gratitude list that stretches across all 12 months from January to December. At the top of that list, I surely want to list moments with God when He surprised, delighted, and blessed my life, the times of favor for health, family and abundance and the sweet mountain top encounters with Him alone. But, let me not forget to also list the inevitable times when God seems far off, when trials come, when He seems as silent as snowfall, when I do not understand His ways and am far too weary to fight the good fight. God is present in both the light and the darkness, exclusive of neither. This year I hope to be equally grateful for Him at sunrise and at midnight.

At the end of this year I won’t remember a single resolution I might have made. But hopefully, I’ll have received another year of life. God’s incredible, marvelous gift to this human stuns me and when I consider all the seconds, minutes and hours He offers in the next 365 days, how is Life not pure treasure from the Lord? When I was young, I never gave “life as gift” a second thought , but with age comes wisdom. Through the school of hard knocks and more so, God’s grace I now rejoice getting up in the morning with another 24 hours on this planet. Therefore, whether I write in my journals or share aloud, let each approaching day flutter in my heart like notes of praise to the living God so that at year’s end and in retrospect, there has built up a resounding anthem of thanksgiving. I’ll take a year’s end Hallelujah for God’s loving kindness in 2020. How about you?