Resolutions

You may or may not be one who makes New Year’s resolutions, who sets goals and checks them off, but every follower of Christ should be striving to improve, striving even for perfection.

I heard recently this definition of a goal: to think about an ideal, about life as you want it to be.

What would your ideal life be? What would it look like? What kind of person would you be in that life?

When we have a vision of what we would like to happen, of what we would like it to look like, then we can better plan the steps that will bring us closer to that ideal.

Ideals are stars to steer by, not sticks to beat ourselves with.

Often the gap between the ideal and where we are is filled with discouragement, guilt, hopelessness, unhappiness. But a proper attitude towards the ideal should motivate us, and help us to see our way more clearly.

Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for? (Robert Browning)

Without vision, we may find ourselves jumping, but only in one place.
We may not reach a goal we make, but the very setting of it improves our focus and efforts to try.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Improving ourselves is really not an optional choice; if we are not improving we are probably, like water, taking the path of least resistance, the path of the natural man.

You are what you do--not what you want to do, or intend to do, or wish you could do, but you actually do do." (Paul Dunn)

If I remember the story right, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions. When he asks her where she wants to go, she doesn't know. "Then," he said, "it doesn't much matter which road you take."

We know which road we want to take. It is the road to Happiness.
It may be steep and long, but it is worth it.

It would be well with us if we planned our journey.

May we, by the grace of God, have success.

Testimony of a Friend

As I’ve thought about this past year, my heart is full of gratitude for the times and the ways I have felt the Spirit of the Lord in my life.

I remember a time some years ago that I consider to be the lowest point in my life. It was a time I felt very alone, like I had no where to turn, when there was no arm of flesh upon which I could rely. In the depths of that experience I learned that I did have a true friend, and it was the Savior. I knew that He truly knew me, that He understood, and that He would succor me. And I knew from that day on that no matter what happened to me in life, I would always have a friend in Jesus.

Well, things have happened in my life, and I’ve reflected on the times and ways that I have felt His friendship.

It is a wondrous thing to have a God who can read our very thoughts, who can discern the desires of our hearts, and who responds to them in particular and tender ways.

I am grateful for the times in my life that I have felt His arms around me, for the times that I have wept at His feet, for the times that He has come to my rescue and saved me, and for the times that I have opened the door to find Him just right there. I have learned that He is always just right there, though most of the time we don’t know it. But we can know it.

From the beginning of time, when He stood up for us in the Grand Council in Heaven, and for ever after He is our Advocate at the Judgment Bar, He has always been and will always be our very best Friend.


It is good to remember that we can be His friend too, as we seek fellowship with Him, as we value all he does for us, as we follow in His footsteps, as we help Him in His great work of salvation.


I have no words to thank Him for His tender mercies, only to testify of Him, of a true and living God who is nearer than we know and always our truest friend, for I have heard His voice, I have felt His touch, I have experienced the power of His love in my life.


Of this I testify. Of this I know.

New Beginnings

Life is full of new beginnings.
The start of a new year is one of the most marked.
Not one for setting goals, yet I feel a sense of wanting to get back on track, of renewing old commitments, of trying to do better.

Every season can be a new beginning, every turning of a calendar page, every start of a school year. We begin anew when we move to a new house, have a new baby, start a new job, make a new friend.

But the one that matters most happens with the rising of the sun each morning. Maybe we can’t sustain a goal for a year, but we can try again each day.

After the dark of night dawns a bright new day, full of new starts and new beginnings. Whatever we do wrong or fail to do today does not need to wake with us on the morrow.

Every day –
A chance to repent,
A chance to try again,
A chance to renew ourselves.


Praise be to God for the dawn!