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From the Pastors(Jeremiah 30:11) |
Every week our pastor shares reflections on religion, or what's going on around the community and the world.
From the Pastor
Happy New Year! I've read in a few places that nearly half of you are likely to make a New Year's resolution this year, and that the top three resolutions will be:
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Spend more time with family and friends.
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Exercise regularly
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Battle the bulge
Key to successfully sticking to these resolutions, according to the “experts”, is to set attainable goals. That makes sense to me too. Planning to lose 5 pounds in January will give one greater focus than just resolving “to lose weight”.
But let's be honest, the real problem is that we love our bad habits. Who doesn't find joy in cookies? And how many of us really want to run on a treadmill instead of watching TV? I know I don't. We love eating cookies and watching TV, so we keep on eating and watching. In essence, we do what we love, but perhaps more importantly we won't do what we don't get pleasure from. This is why most New Year's resolutions are given up on – because we don't enjoy them. The Children of Israel were very ready to give up on going to Canaan because being in the wilderness wasn't a lot of fun. So how do we break this?
It would seem to be a matter of focus. Are we focusing on how much we love the chocolatey goodness of those cookies, or are we focusing on how good we will look when we lose that weight or start exercising? Some suggest we need to focus on the fact that if we keep up our old habits we're going to have to get those pants with the elastic waistbands. Personally, I don't really like to focus on the negative, but the book Doctrine of Charity tells us that we at least need to be mindful of the downside of our habits.
[Evil delights] are not subdued unless they are regarded as sweet drugs that kill, or as flowers apparently beautiful that carry poison in them; thus unless the delights of evil are regarded as deadly, and this until at length they become undelightful. (Charity 2)
It does seem a bit over the top to equate eating cookies with “evil delights”, yet it somehow seems reasonable to see that bag of Oreos as a “sweet drug that kills”. Okay, maybe not “kills” as in “death” but it can kill our self esteem and create issues as our spouse or loved ones chide us about not sticking to the resolution.
So next time you want to plop on the couch, just imagine a big skull and cross bones label on it saying: “Surgeon General Warning: sitting on the couch can be addictive.” Maybe that will help. I'm pretty addicted to it, but as for you, good luck, and best wishes for the new year!
- Todd