This may not be your first New Year, and it will not (deo volente) be your last! Every New Year comes with great expectations, and we make positive utterances as we enter the New Year and anticipate wonderful things to happen in our lives. There are prayerful wishes for open doors, fresh beginnings, divine victory, an immense success, divine expansion, and other supplicatory statements.
After a long period of introspection, I have come to understand that we consistently forget a very important thing in our New Year prayers and wishes and that is the attention to a renewed life. We want new things to happen in our lives, but only very few us want to develop new dispositions and renewed lives. We want new things to happen in our lives when we are still moving about with our old selves.
There is a new version of yourself that is hidden somewhere, and there is every need for you to let it out. You can let out the new version of yourself when you decide to quit the old self. You cannot expect something new when you are still living with the old disposition and the old way of life. Our Lord Jesus Christ urged us to put new wine into an old wineskin Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22).
The New Year can become a great blessing for you if you change the way you live your life. You cannot expect a different result from old ways of doing things. Something must change in you before you climb to a new reality. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul tells them to cast off the works of darkness because the night is far gone (Romans 13:12).
Somewhere I read that attitude is everything. My reflection affirms this claim. Attitude has to do with a way of thinking and doing things. Your attitude determines your altitude in life. This New Year should offer us an opportunity to reflect on our attitude towards life. Often, we do not believe that we need improvement in our way of acting and reacting. The following practical steps could be helpful to us:
- Talk less and do more productive things.
- Give more attention to your family.
- Cut down on Some friendships could be draining and time-consuming.
- Create more time for God; you cannot do without Him. Pray always and never lose heart (Luke 18:1).
- Develop a more positive mental attitude with life.
- Forgive and let go; to not allow hurtful thoughts to preoccupy your mind.
- God has given you life, and you must take care of it. Live a healthy life, eat well, and avoid harmful habits that would affect your life.
- Avoid and cut down on time wasters like television, social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, snapchat, etc), internet, and unfruitful visits.
- Owe nobody nothing except love (Romans 13:8).
Have a prosperous and blessed New Year.
Fr. Bonnie.