You Say You Want a Resolution?
Isaiah 28:10
"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little."
The word for precept in the Hebrew is a small step, like a brick in building a wall, for the instruction of a child.
Here are my Top Ten resolutions for 2010...inspired by the "Baby-Step" concept from the film "What About Bob?" and Letterman's "Top Ten."
10) Don't write as long blogs. Brevity in blogs is better. The only bloggers who can get away from being short are geniuses like Malcolm Gladwell. I have a goal to be a professional writer (at least avocationally). I am blogging to sharpen my skills primarily, to encourage myself, and to provide perhaps some thoughts that help others. I generally take 30 minutes to write a blog. My goal is to get it down to 15 minutes.
9) Eat healthier organic fruits and vegetables. For three out of the four seasons, we will have organic vegetables and fruits to eat from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) family-farm. I have made the rounds locally and it will be just too time consuming and/or expensive to try and go organic in the winter. I am considering writing Costco to try and convince them to stock more organic foodstuffs. Only until major players get solidly behind organic food, will the prices come down. I also want them to find a way to buy local within season from local farmers.
We plan to eat less meat (and better meat), fewer simple carbs, and reduce the saturated fats. A gut is an indication of too much coming in of the wrong types of fuel--like the gas pumping nozzle still flowing after the tank is full. America's battle with obesity is literally the sick elephant in the room that few politicians address in the Health Care debates.
I will not eliminate things that I enjoy that are not healthy but I will try to reduce the consumption of them.
8) Stop running and jogging. I have a bad left knee for years and common sense suggests if my knee is chronically damaged, it is wisest to modify my exercise plan. I have used running and jogging as a way of keeping weight off in the past. I need to cut down on eating. Shucks. I also like to run, so this is a loss. I am walking instead and this makes me feel elderly...oh well.
7) Drink less beer, but, better beer. I want to cut down on my quantity of beer consumption yet drink better beer when I do drink. Less is more...more taste and flavor, less calories. Lite Beer is the opposite of what I need. Drinking 4 Lite beers in search of satisfaction is looking for love in all the wrong places.
6) Try to be cleaner around the house. My wife Lina needs cleanliness on floors and counters. Some mess doesn't bother me but it does her. Conversely, I don't really hate cleaning the way she does...I just don't always see the need for it. Me cranking up the cleanliness dial a notch or two is not a unreasonable goal.
5) Watch less TV and read more. Often, I have a gnawing emptiness after watching a spate of TV. My soul is pleading for meaning and I give it inane or otherwise inappropriate entertainment. Kind of how I feel after eating a bag of chips. Full but empty.
4) Be more neighborly. Recently, two neighbors shoveled the two-feet of snow off of our driveway while we were in California. Although I was hoping that it would melt before we returned, I was even more concerned that the local juvenile delinquents, who have been on a crime-spree, would figure out that we were gone and loot our house. Good deeds, not fences alone, make good neighbors.
3) Pray more...as I have noted in previous blogs, I don't pray. I am not even going to say that I don't pray enough. That would be too high an estimate. Even though we say grace at dinner, otherwise I communicate with God too infrequently. I recently downloaded a daily prayer from the I-Tunes App Store. It provides some written-out prayers with places to add my own reflections. Apparently, I need to be spoon-fed structure to pray. So be it.
2) Love people more. Not sure what this means in specifics, yet I find myself loving at a distance but not practically at times. Maybe have people over for meals more often?
1) Love God more....sometimes I seem to be more thankful that in Christ I am going to dodge the fires of Hell rather than looking at it more positively...that I will spend eternity with the One who loves me most. I am not sure why I have an imbalanced view of salvation. God is worthy of love...and honor...and glory...and worship.
"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little."
The word for precept in the Hebrew is a small step, like a brick in building a wall, for the instruction of a child.
Here are my Top Ten resolutions for 2010...inspired by the "Baby-Step" concept from the film "What About Bob?" and Letterman's "Top Ten."
10) Don't write as long blogs. Brevity in blogs is better. The only bloggers who can get away from being short are geniuses like Malcolm Gladwell. I have a goal to be a professional writer (at least avocationally). I am blogging to sharpen my skills primarily, to encourage myself, and to provide perhaps some thoughts that help others. I generally take 30 minutes to write a blog. My goal is to get it down to 15 minutes.
9) Eat healthier organic fruits and vegetables. For three out of the four seasons, we will have organic vegetables and fruits to eat from a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) family-farm. I have made the rounds locally and it will be just too time consuming and/or expensive to try and go organic in the winter. I am considering writing Costco to try and convince them to stock more organic foodstuffs. Only until major players get solidly behind organic food, will the prices come down. I also want them to find a way to buy local within season from local farmers.
We plan to eat less meat (and better meat), fewer simple carbs, and reduce the saturated fats. A gut is an indication of too much coming in of the wrong types of fuel--like the gas pumping nozzle still flowing after the tank is full. America's battle with obesity is literally the sick elephant in the room that few politicians address in the Health Care debates.
I will not eliminate things that I enjoy that are not healthy but I will try to reduce the consumption of them.
8) Stop running and jogging. I have a bad left knee for years and common sense suggests if my knee is chronically damaged, it is wisest to modify my exercise plan. I have used running and jogging as a way of keeping weight off in the past. I need to cut down on eating. Shucks. I also like to run, so this is a loss. I am walking instead and this makes me feel elderly...oh well.
7) Drink less beer, but, better beer. I want to cut down on my quantity of beer consumption yet drink better beer when I do drink. Less is more...more taste and flavor, less calories. Lite Beer is the opposite of what I need. Drinking 4 Lite beers in search of satisfaction is looking for love in all the wrong places.
6) Try to be cleaner around the house. My wife Lina needs cleanliness on floors and counters. Some mess doesn't bother me but it does her. Conversely, I don't really hate cleaning the way she does...I just don't always see the need for it. Me cranking up the cleanliness dial a notch or two is not a unreasonable goal.
5) Watch less TV and read more. Often, I have a gnawing emptiness after watching a spate of TV. My soul is pleading for meaning and I give it inane or otherwise inappropriate entertainment. Kind of how I feel after eating a bag of chips. Full but empty.
4) Be more neighborly. Recently, two neighbors shoveled the two-feet of snow off of our driveway while we were in California. Although I was hoping that it would melt before we returned, I was even more concerned that the local juvenile delinquents, who have been on a crime-spree, would figure out that we were gone and loot our house. Good deeds, not fences alone, make good neighbors.
3) Pray more...as I have noted in previous blogs, I don't pray. I am not even going to say that I don't pray enough. That would be too high an estimate. Even though we say grace at dinner, otherwise I communicate with God too infrequently. I recently downloaded a daily prayer from the I-Tunes App Store. It provides some written-out prayers with places to add my own reflections. Apparently, I need to be spoon-fed structure to pray. So be it.
2) Love people more. Not sure what this means in specifics, yet I find myself loving at a distance but not practically at times. Maybe have people over for meals more often?
1) Love God more....sometimes I seem to be more thankful that in Christ I am going to dodge the fires of Hell rather than looking at it more positively...that I will spend eternity with the One who loves me most. I am not sure why I have an imbalanced view of salvation. God is worthy of love...and honor...and glory...and worship.
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