Resolutions

 

Do you make New Years’ resolutions?  I do.  During the next week we will see countless commercials for Nutrisystem, Nicorette, and Peloton.  But as January rolls on, the commercials will fade just as our commitment to keeping our resolutions fades.  Jonathan Edwards, the 18^th century preacher, wrote seventy resolutions that guided his life!  Wow!  I couldn’t write that many, let alone keep that many, for an entire lifetime!  One of Jonathan Edward’s resolutions was to be “quick to hear and slow to speak.”  This was found in James 1:19, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”  If we could just follow this one resolution in 2021, we would be miles ahead in our personal relationships.  I used to tell my students that “God gave us two ears and only one mouth,” and for a good reason.  Another was, “No one has ever learned anything by talking.”  Rhetoric is a good lesson, but listening is a rare treasure.  May I listen a little more, and bite my tongue a little more in 2021, is my prayer.