Forget about resolutions… Here’s some ideas for you for 2017:
- Read through the Bible (or the New Testament).
- Fast from something occasionally (food, Facebook, TV, etc.).
- Make a new friend, or two, or more.
- Eat something you’ve never eaten before.
- Write a book.
- Write an old-fashioned snail mail letter to an old friend.
- Establish a new habit of walking with your spouse or parent or sibling.
- Eat meat from an animal you killed yourself. (I accomplished this idea this week, with a successful pheasant hunt).
- Plant a garden.
- Read more. Much more.
- Get on the floor and wrestle with your kids or grandkids.
- Take some ibuprofen the next morning.
- Read a biography.
- Videotape an interview of one of your older relatives.
- Eat at local restaurants (non-chain) as much as possible, especially when traveling.
- Give away more money.
- Play a game of UNO with your family.
- Play a game of Killer UNO with your family.
- Return to playing regular UNO with your family so you will love each other again.
- Clean out your closet or garage or attic or basement.
- Watch an episode of the Andy Griffith show.
- Spend an evening with your old friends reminiscing about how good things used to be, without looking at your phones one single time.
- Enjoy a sunrise.
- Take a Sunday afternoon drive with your family.
- Pray more. Much more.
- Play more board games with family and friends.
- Learn a new skill.
- Give away some of your stuff.
- Pay for the order for the person behind you in the drive-thru.
- Make sure they are not a family of six or more.
- Take more pictures.
- Write out your goals (make them Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-keyed)
- Go to worship every weekend unless Providentially hindered.
- Design your life plan, no matter how old you are.
- Ask a trusted friend to keep you accountable about what matters in your life. Offer to do the same for them.
- Think of someone who you think is probably lonely and either call them or go visit them or meet them for lunch.
- Laugh at yourself more.
- When you go to church, ask people, “How can I pray for you?” Then, pray for them on the spot.
- Take a bubble bath. When you get in the bath, dramatically say, “Calgon, take me away!”
- Men, grow a beard at least once this year.
- Women, let your man grow a beard at least once this year.
- Teenagers, your parents really do know a few things. Listen to them. They love you. They really do.
- Go watch a ballgame at your alma mater. Wear the colors and cheer for those kids like they are yours.
- Start each day by saying the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not the only great prayer, but it is the one prayer Jesus told us to pray.
- Try to find some times to turn off your phone.
- Sing in the shower.
- Read the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
- On August 21st, be in a location to experience the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in the United States in over 80 years!
- Go Christmas caroling at a nursing home or retirement home.
- Go to a museum.
- Enjoy a sunset.
- Make things right with God.
Brett A. Maragni 