This New Year, try resolutions grounded in faith

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve never been an advocate of the New Year’s resolution.

While others are vowing to eat less and exercise more, I’m usually lazing back in a comfy chair stuffing my face with chips, dip and cheesy poofs. I’ve been heard on more than one occasion saying I didn’t need a specific day of the year to make minor adjustments to my way of living.

However, there was one year that I made two very public resolutions.

Why would a guy who is adamantly against New Year’s resolutions make not one but two resolutions? Well, let’s just say that I was making somewhat merry, and when oaths were being valiantly pledged, I could not sit there and be upstaged.

“I resolve,” I said like a gladiator with one foot raised on the ottoman. “I resolve that this year I will fit in my 32-waist jeans that have been taking up space in my dresser for nearly a decade.”

A colossal cheer went up as my wife looked nonplussed.

“Further,” I said with Shakespearean flair, “I will completely renovate the bathroom.” This got her attention, interested yet dubious.

Now, at that time, our bathroom had been a point of contention because it reeked of 1973, and I had said soon after we moved in that I would make it a priority. However, nearly four years into homeownership, the loo was still firmly set in the Nixon era, so my wife’s dithering look was certainly warranted.

By the time the next round of resolutions approached, the bathroom had begun to resemble a construction zone, but byI now realize the problem and probably why I never really cared for New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions are based on intentions, which are not a solid foundation. Intentions are merely theoretical and can lead to self-deception and inaction because we can convince ourselves, subconsciously or not, that the intention itself is good enough.

So now I suggest any New Year’s resolution we make be grounded in faith, and, for that, all we need to do is turn to the saints.

Here, then, are the most popular New Year’s resolutions:

Eating less: “As long as the vice of gluttony has a hold on a man, all that he has done valiantly is forfeited by him: and as long as the belly is unrestrained, all virtue comes to naught.” – Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Exercising more: “Remember that bodily exercise, when it is well ordered, as I have said, is also prayer by means of which you can please God our Lord.” – Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Stressing less: “Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.” – Saint Teresa of Avila

Reading more: “You will not see anyone who is truly striving after his spiritual advancement who is not given to spiritual reading.” – Saint Athanasius

Managing money better: “The greedy man is really not rich, but poor. He does not control his money but is controlled by it.” – Saint Anthony of Padua

Balancing work and life better: “Man ought to imitate God both in working and also in resting, since God himself wished to present his own creative activity under the form of work and rest.” – Pope Saint John Paul II

And, of course, none of this will be successful without a resolution to pray more: “Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.” – Saint Ephrem of Syria.

Aligning our self-improvement, our resolve to do better, with our spiritual values, aided by the intercession of the saints, will lead to more positive outcomes.

The bathroom, for those who were wondering, was finally finished – but not until after two or so resolution cycles. As for the 32-waist jeans, well, they mysteriously ended up in a bag of clothes for Goodwill. Now I wonder how that could have happened?

Deacon Dean Johnson serves at Church of the Holy Family, Sewell.