New Year's Resolutions

Share with me some of your New Year's resolutions! Anything unusual?

As for me . . . I'm going with the old standbys . . . lose the five pounds I gained during the holidays, spend more time with the grand-children, finish the quilt I started early in 2012, keep my blog current, get more organized, and spend more time in the Word.

But I'm also going to deviate a little from the old standbys. In 2013, and every year thereafter, I resolve to do a better job of keeping the Ten Commandments.

Quite frankly, until recently, I thought I was doing a fine job of keeping them . . . now, anyway . . . I haven't always.

But several Sundays ago, while I was pounding away on my keyboard, I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit. A reminder, if you will, that it was Sunday. The day our church celebrates the Sabbath. And I was working. As I had the Sunday before that, and the one before that, and the one before . . . well, you get the picture.

I'd gotten in the habit of Sunday afternoons being my "make up" time. The time I gathered the little tidbits undone during the previous week (and the week before) and attempted to get caught up. (Never quite reaching that lofty goal, I might add.) I didn't consider it "real work." I mean, it was only catch-up, right?

But a trip to my Bible to double-check revealed the third commandment to be pretty clear about things: Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.

Well, I plead not guilty regarding making others work . . . but I consistantly (for the last 20 or 30 years) have used the excuse provided by the Lord, Himself. "My ox is in the ditch." Truth be told, my ox stays in the ditch. It's way past time to shoot the poor creature and put it out of it's misery.

I find it hard to relax. In fact, I feel guilty if I take the time to relax. But clearly, the Lord knew what He was doing when He commanded us to relax one day a week. The human body is not designed for unceasing labor (even if it's only sitting at a desk.) Good health demands we have a time of rest.  And isn't it weird that a commandment that requires us to do nothing should be so hard for some to follow?

This is even more weird. In the few short weeks I've been consciously aware of this commandment, I seem to have gotten almost caught up. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And my list of things to do is getting shorter, instead of longer.

God does indeed work in mysterious ways!