Once a year as the New Year is staring us in the face, we all boast about our resolutions for the new year ahead. Our chest puffs up with pride as we shout, "In the new year I'm going to lose weight, stop smoking, start flossing, exercise more by riding a bike to work, cut carbohydrates and just be a really nice person."

Some people refer to a New Year’s resolution as a promise to stop doing everything you enjoy most.

It's hard not to get the resolution urge on New Year's Eve. In the air there is a sense of renewal and a feeling of rebirth. But lingering in the background is the awareness that you ate your weight in assorted deserts during the holidays!

Sure, last year's resolutions didn't make it past the first week in January. But this year is going to be different. Right?

Just why do we break these resolutions? Just maybe it's because human beings by their nature tend to avoid hard work when possible, cater to our impulses at the expense of our judgment, and think mostly of the short-term consequences of our actions.

I've been known to choose a nap time instead of a workout. Choose my favorite desert over the salad bar. I think only of how good that afternoon nap will feel and how good that chocolate chip cookie will taste rather than think of how difficult it would be to work it all off by some method of boring exercise.

This end of an old year brings about a time for reflection and assessment of our personal progress during the past year. The coming of a brand new year has visions of a fresh start and a time for deciding what needs to be changed.

Just remember, a resolution is simply a promise to yourself.

What the New Year brings us will depend a great deal on what we bring to the New Year.

Serious trouble comes when the New Year's resolutions collide with the old year's habits. Some folks look forward to a new year as it gives them a fresh start on old habits.

Most of us don't have a clue how to make a reasonable resolution, which is probably why most of us fail to keep the ones we make. We set high goals for ourselves, and wonder why we never attain them. Our resolutions are abandoned so quickly. Next, we either stop setting goals or make resolutions that don't require much effort to keep.

And why do we abandon our New Year's resolutions so quickly? Why do we simply give up and quit and go back to our ways of the past?

Some of us will become discouraged when the anticipated results don't appear quickly enough. Or when we find that we aren't any happier because of them. A behavioral change requires a sustained effort and commitment. Patience seems to be just a fleeting virtue.

So, for 2010 let's try a different approach. Involve the Lord in our process of setting new goals. This year, when we make our

New Year's resolutions put a spiritual focus on them by following some principles as outlined in the Bible.

Jesus had a plan for everything He did. I can't recall a time when He had to "wing it"! He planned His work and worked His plan. Don't expect to be successful without a plan. Each goal needs to be defined in terms of the steps that are needed to make it happen.

In Proverbs 16:3 the Bible tells us ..... "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." When we put God in charge of our goals, we will succeed. It is His promise!

This new year of 2010 can be the best of our lives. We only fail when we become discouraged and quit!

I wish for all of my readers a successful and bountiful New Year. And may all your troubles be as short-lived as your resolutions.