New Year

It's the almost the end of the 2nd day of a New Year. Why is that capitalized, anyway? What's so special about a new year that we end up giving it proper name status? (I'm not really sure where I'm going with that, btw; just a random thought I had) I do find it interesting; however, that people spend so much time trying to figure out their New Year's Resolutions at the end of the previous year.

"I'm going to eat healthier and lose weight."
"I'm going to quit smoking."
"I'm going to stop swearing."

And the list goes on.
I read an interesting blog post by Mark Driscoll yesterday about why those resolutions never work. Sure, we go strong for a time, but by mid-February we find ourselves back at the McDonald's drive-thru, or buying a new pack of smokes at the gas station, or we hear those words coming out of our mouths we vowed to never say again. But why? We have good intentions, don't we? We know that it's better to eat a well-balanced meal than to scarf down a Big Mac, right? But like all things, it comes down to our intentions.

Why do you want to eat healthier and lose weight? Is it to impress someone? Is it because you hate how you look in that dress but you really want to wear it? Or do you want to live a healthier lifestyle because you want to honor God and treat your body as His temple? The same would apply to any bad habit we've adopted into our physical lifestyle. Why quit smoking? Because you know that you are treating the body with which the Lord had blessed you with contempt? Or because you "should"? Do you decide to stop cussing because you want to be seen as a better person, holier-than-thou? Or because you want to honor the Lord with your mouth; the mouth that He created?

I think we need to stop focusing so much on the "what" and begin to think about the "Who". Who are we doing this for? If I am trying to make these changes for me, I am doomed to fail. My flesh and my sin nature set me up for failure and disappointment. But if I truly want to give God the glory in all things, then the natural order of things is that I will start to live my life in a way that is honoring to Him. It all comes down to this: anything we do in our lives should be out of love for God because He first loved us.