Make Love Your Resolution

Image credit: By Jamie Street (2019), Unsplash.com, CC0/PD[/caption] This year I’ve been racking my brain about a resolution that I might actually stick to. Resolutions today seem somewhat taboo. Goals of losing weight or saving money always rank at the top of the list, but they also rank at the top in not following through. I’m guilty of making resolutions and not sticking to them, and yet I still think they’re good to make. Except this year I truly wanted to stick to whatever it is that I either try to improve, try to do better, or try to limit, but something that I might “actually” stick to. In order to do that I had to figure out what holds me back from completing resolutions. Is it the loss of momentum after a month of resolution setting, or is it the struggle in failing to reach the goal that keeps us from our resolutions? I know in my past experience I’ve failed to keep resolutions because other factors in my life would sometimes take precedence. For many years I’ve tried to make exercise as a resolution. I looked at resolutions as a very linear thing that I could only achieve if I kept my focus on that one thing (exercise) and nothing else. But when someone needed my help or I was called to a task, my resolution might be set aside so I could tend to others always putting myself last and exercise goes to the wayside. So this year, I realized that my resolutions didn’t need to be centered on one thing in my life and they certainly didn’t need to be my last priority. How could I manage both? I realized as long as I kept love as my center, that could be my resolution.

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Now I know it seems weird to make love a resolution but its something that we can do very easily that we can apply to pretty much everything. When I applied my old resolutions such as working out every day, I considered only the one thing I wanted to change and looked at the rest of my life as separate. But when I apply love to ALL parts of my life, I stick to my resolution by improving everything in my life. Now when I exercise I consider that my body is a temple and God loves me enough that I should take care of what he gave me. So how can love be applied to other resolutions? If we focused on a resolution of love we would look at our goals completely differently.

In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. (1 John 4: 9-10)

Maybe your resolution of love can be spending time with someone you don’t see as often who is a bit lonely. Maybe a resolution of love means, saying more positive words and letting others know what they mean to you. Maybe your resolution of love is to accept things that you cannot change but your actions can show love and through that it will influence others. "Make love your resolution" by Andrea Bear (CatholicMom.com)

Image credit: By Mandy von Stahl (2018), Unsplash.com, CC0/PD[/caption] Another type of resolution of love is to love yourself and others. Do you love yourself enough to know that you deserve to be loved by God and use your God-given gifts to honor him? Do you love your family so in that you make sacrifices for their sake? Do you love your co-workers enough to listen to their needs and understand their concerns before jumping to conclusions? Love is something we all need, yet we don’t always show or receive it properly.

Yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)