Christmas 2014 has come and gone. The memory of the delicious Christmas lunch with all the trimmings grows more distant. The leftover Christmas turkey has ended up in a variety of utility meals or sandwiches. Nice times spent with family and friends, the highs (and lows) of the celebration, the good feelings surrounding receiving and giving gifts as well as possibly disappointments of missed opportunities to rebuild strained relationships remain etched in the memory.
Did you enjoy the Christmas & Boxing Day? What did it all mean? How much time was spent reflecting on the reason for the season and acknowledging the gift of the begotten Son Jesus who would ultimately give His life to reconcile us back to God.
The trees and the garlands have served their purpose and many are in the process of being taken down. What can be recycled for the next years celebration? What has concluded its use and requires discarding for good. Are there any things we need to be discarding for good?
Now comes the time to look at the forthcoming year.
The New Year represents an opportunity to assess what you have achieved, the challenges, the successes of the past, where you at now and the plans for the New Year.
The concept of New Year Resolutions is not a new one. In Ancient Babylon, the people made promises to their Gods to pay their debts. The Ancient Romans made vows to Janus from which the month of January has its origin. New Year resolutions are indeed a part of modern culture with people of various backgrounds displaying various levels of dedication to seeing their personal goals come to fruition in the year in question.
We are encouraged in the Word to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added (Matthew 6:33).
The goals of any individual to get fitter, stop smoking, give up alcohol, lose weight, become more responsible, become more charitable, start or make progress in a project or give more time to others should be encouraged. We can all play a part in supporting the folk in our lives to achieve their personal goals.
In Ecclesiastes 12:13 it says ‘Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.’ This is as true now as it has ever been. The New Year can give us a starting point to say … New year, new commitment, new zeal , new resolve and new desire to follow God in seeking His will.
Husbands and wives would do well to reflect on how they can be better spouses than they have been in the past year and commit to making the changes.
Specifically for husbands, a commitment to being the Spiritual leader of the home, taking charge of affairs and providing leadership in other key areas of family life while making effort to display true love to his wife. Men need to have a strong conviction and corresponding confession that she is God’s gift and will do them good all the days of your life. Men need to make a greater effort to understand all her challenges and limitations and always lift her up in intercession while showing generosity in all things especially attention, gentle words and acts of appreciation.
Wives would do well to committing to having a genuine admiration, respect and appreciation for their husband and his efforts while remaining committed to being a channel of blessings into the home. Wives need to understand that they have the power to determine to prevailing atmosphere in the home and commit to enhancing the well being of their husband by positive affirmation and being yielded.
If the couple can together agree to working together by ensuring that love, honesty, trust, enduring commitment , patience and forgiveness become the defining terms of their marriage they can be confident that they can weather any storm and come out of any difficulty stronger and more victorious than ever before.
We hope that 2015 will be a year for great testimony as to the goodness of marriage and you will see the Lord’s best manifest in your individual situations.