make this new year different?...

we have been looking here at some emotions from our past that hurt us in our present but now we are headed to a new year, 2013. 

is it me or are our calendars speeding up?  if you’re an average american, using a clock is an illustration of how many years you have left in your life. if you’re 22 years old, it’s 8:20 in the morning. if you’re 32 years old (based on life expectancies) it’s 11:20 in the morning and you have 2,122 weeks left. if you’re 42, its 3:20 in the afternoon.  if you’re 52 it’s 6:20 p.m.  you have 1,092 weeks.

the point is, whatever you’re going to do with your life you’d better get on it because time is running out.  the other point is, if you’re not doing something with your life it really doesn’t matter how many days you’ve got left anyway. 

so what are you going to do with 2013?  how will this year be any different?  how many of you would like ‘13 to be better than ‘12? 

for many last year was a tough year.  it was a year of challenges, a year of choices.  it was a year of changes.  it was a year of some crises.  the fact is for some of you ‘12 was a disappointment.  for some of you, you experienced a loss, maybe you lost a loved one.  maybe for some of you ’12 was a year of a failure. 

but the good news is this: this next month we get to start over.  GOD brings us life in bite sized pieces, in hours and days and months.  every year HE just says, let’s wipe the slate clean and let’s start with a brand new year.  it’s like starting over.  and that’s good news.

so how will ‘13 be better than ‘12?  the key is this, you’ve got to have a plan.  you don’t just enter ‘13 and say, “i hope it’s going to be better.”  you’ve got to have a plan to make it better. 

proverbs 17.24 (gnt), an intelligent person aims at wise actions, but a fool starts off in many directions. 

for many of us that describes ‘12.  we were headed off in many directions.  notice the word, aims. that means they have a goal, an objective, an aim, a target.  have you set any goals for ‘13?  or are you just going to walk into this year and hope it’s better?  you’ve got to have a plan. 

just a thought from the front porch…