New Year's Resolutions

I'm not big on New Year's resolutions. You know the list of 10 things that are too difficult, too easy, or impossible to fulfill. Okay so all my Franklin Organizer, Stephen Covey, John Maxwell types just hit escape on their computers and are gone. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with resolutions and annual goals. They are worthy and admirable. We all need goals.

Several years ago basketball coaching great Jim Valvano was battling cancer when he gave his famed speech at the ESPY awards. In his speech Jimmy V encouraged everyone to do three things every day of their life: laugh, use your mind and cry. He said that if you can finish a day with those three elements it's been a "pretty good day". To laugh and smile at something means you've invested emotion. To engage your mind in something worthwhile and challenging is productive. To cry or shed a tear demonstrates a compassionate heart that hasn't grown cold through indifference, cycnicsm or bitterness.

If you think about it the coach was in pretty good company. In Matthew 22, a Pharisee tries to trick Jesus by asking Him which is the greatest of all the commandments. Jesus answers:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

What if we tried to live like this every day? Now there's a New Year's resolution that would make a difference!