New Days Resolution

We stared 2012 with such great intentions. We were fired up... passionate... ready to make 2012 something far greater than anything we've ever experienced before. But by now we've all had enough time for it to happen. We've missed a day. We've forgotten. We were just too tired. We messed up again. However we word it, the resolution we wanted to define 2012 is gone and we're not even two weeks into the new year. 


I'm not writing this to discourage you. I want to propose a different perspective on resolutions.


Proverbs 24:16 says "The Godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked."


God is not a "one strike and you're out" kind of guy. It's so encouraging to read in the Bible that God already knew that we would fail, we would mess up, we would sin. This verse in Proverbs is not an isolated passage. God in His infinite wisdom knows that life is tough and we may trip up.


High school students know what it's like to trip up too. They get bad grades on tests. They wreck the car. They spill on the carpet. They lose things. I don't have high school aged kids of my own, but I'm around them enough to know that, for the most part, they tend to have something in common. I have parents ask me why their son or daughter doesn't talk to them about their problems, and I can honestly say that most teenagers I talk with don't go to their parents because they don't want to disappoint them, not because they are scared.


Now let's go back to Proverbs. I find it interesting that the Bible describes a person as "Godly" who messes up seven times. In my mind, that adjective doesn't fit in this context. But to God, what's important is not whether or not we trip up. What's important is whether we get back up again.


How can we encourage our students to get back up again? How can we be there for them? Encourage them? Give them space and freedom to make a mistake but being close enough to help pick them back up again?


So to all who have already tripped up on those resolutions... Today is a new day. We don't have to wait until 2013 to make a new resolution. Resolve right now to get back up again, and tell your son or daughter how "Godly" they are when they do the same.