40 Resolutions for 40 years

Jonathan Edwards and his 70 resolutions for his life inspired me to write up a few of my own. Of course, he wrote them when he was 19 years old! Anyways, here are my resolutions that define who I want to be and how I want my life to be lived. They aren’t really just for my 40^th birthday, but it did seem like a good time to put these things down on paper and organize my personal goals and visions for my life.

I resolve to:

1. Live life to the fullest, with wonder and anticipation for God’s work
2. Make every moment count, not allowing TV or internet to steal my valuable time
3. Take time daily for meditation and solitude
4. Spend time daily in prayer and worship
5. Read Scripture every day
6. Do the things that care for my heart and restore my soul with creativity and fun
7. Continue to grow and learn by reading challenging books
8. Make fellowship and connectedness a priority weekly
9. Love my husband deeply and unreservedly with time, actions and words
10. Be characterized by faithfulness in all my relationships
11. Give my time and heart unselfishly to my children
12. Speak with gentleness to my children and others, remembering that we are all tender at heart and easily crushed
13. Be a good friend, caring for others the way I want them to care for me
14. Be patient with my children, giving them time to grow into all God has planned for them
15. Challenge myself to try new things and to go beyond what I have already done
16. Not allow myself to stagnate
17. Live a life devoted to God, surrendered to His plans and His will
18. Keep dreaming
19. Have a heart that is open to whatever God asks me to do – live in obedience to His calling
20. Look for opportunities to do good to others
21. Be a woman of prayer
22. Make exercise a priority because it strengthens my attitude and my body
23. Eat healthy foods that nourish me and not foods that deplete my energy
24. Work out the self-control in my life that God is working in me
25. Choose joy
26. Extend grace to those around me, just like Christ has for me
27. Keep writing and sharing my heart with others
28. Look for every opportunity to speak about Jesus to individuals or groups
29. Live in victory over strongholds, not allowing anything to have mastery over me except Christ
30. Continually put God’s Word in my heart, dwelling on Him and not the world
31. Be content with what I have and with my life, not allowing discontentment and unhappiness to choke out the joys of life
32. Be consistent with routines and organization, keeping my home a place of peace, so that disorder does not take over my life and bring stress to my home
33. Be a woman of peace, with a bedrock of faith in Christ that cannot be easily rattled by daily irritations or frustrations
34. Spend time outside regularly, with eyes wide open to see God’s handiwork and praise Him for it
35. Be filled to the fullness with Christ and when I feel empty to seek out whatever means I can to fill up again
36. Look for opportunities to be an ambassador for Christ at work, in my neighborhood and in our community
37. To love deeply
38. To be a woman who is close to God Phil 3:10
39. To be a woman whose life is spent ministering to the needs of others Isaiah 61:1-3
40. Dwell upon whatever is true, noble, right pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy