2020: A Mountain to Climb?

2020: A Mountain to Climb?

Did you and your family set new year’s resolutions this year? Two weeks into January, how is that going? Most new year’s resolutions are given up by the end of the month. Exercising every day, losing 15-20 pounds, learning a new language or skill are all common resolutions that prove very difficult to sustain, no matter our best intentions. I sometimes resolve to write every day, but I’m writing this on January 4^th after trying—and failing—to get to it the first three days of the month!

There is still time for me, and perhaps you and your family, to re-examine our new year’s resolutions and perhaps reframe them in a way that might prove more successful, so we don’t give up on our dreams altogether.

A lot of people on social media this year are proudly NOT setting new goals—that way, they can’t disappoint themselves! Other online approaches I’ve read this year focus on declaring a way that they want to live. For example, instead of losing 15 pounds, they are saying, “I want to make healthier choices throughout the day.” They might very well achieve their specific goal, but it feels more empowering to set the focus on small decisions throughout the day—for example, choosing the healthier meal option at this meal, or parking the car farther from the front door of the store this time, to get in a few extra steps.

See the difference? One goal looks like a mountain that can never be climbed and so is easily abandoned, and the other looks like a simple choice for just this next time. And then the next.

For me, I have three books set to be edited and either republished or published for the first time in the coming year, along with short stories in Keys for Kids magazine (a wonderful devotional magazine for kids!) and some presentations to write. It’s daunting to think about! I also work full time in a school and have a family of four to feed every day. It’s felt like a mountain, and I’ve been too paralyzed with anxiety about it to even begin the journey.

Perhaps if I begin with a daily attitude of gratitude, it will become easier to climb up the mountain, step by step. Instead of thinking, “Oh, dear! Three books to edit! How can I ever do that?” to think instead, “I get to work on this scene today! I get to reach kids for Christ through this story about butterlies today!” It’s a privilege to serve God through my writing and speaking opportunities.

C. S. Lewis said this, in A Mind Awake, about gratitude, “Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’”

Yes, indeed! God is good.

May we, this year, approach all of our resolutions with the same attitude of gratitude. Gratitude for the family God has given us to take care of, and time to spend with them. Gratitude for our bodies, imperfect as they may be! God can use our hands and feet and mind and tongue for His glory! What a privilege!

Joy and peace to you and your families in 2020!

Sonja Anderson, author of the upcoming Adventures of Sophie Topfeather series and Mount Rainier’s Historic Inns and Lodges