New Year, New Resolutions!

We are officially one week into the new year of 2019! Praise Be to God!
Did you make any resolutions for the new year? How are they going so far? Many of us make resolutions only to look back and realize a month or two later that we have already left behind our “clean slate” mentality and continued in our old ways.
Thankfully as Orthodox Christians, we believe in repentance and regularly pray for our hearts to be made clean, and renewed in spirit.
If we think of the new year “holiday” through the lens of our faith, as Fr. Steven Kostoff states:
“A ‘holiday’ is a more-or-less secular and watered-down version of a ‘holy day;’ so a resolution is a more-or-less secular and watered-down version of personal repentance.”
With this mindset, our new year’s resolutions are just another way for us to recommit our hearts to seeking Christ through repentance.
“As members of the Body of Christ living within the grace-filled atmosphere of the Church, we can, in turn, incorporate our resolutions within the ongoing process of repentance.”
Here are some of our resolutions from staff and friends of FOCUS. As you read through, please keep us and those we serve in your prayers! We hope you also consider your own resolutions and how they can be incorporated into our spiritual life of repentance.
Our 2019 Resolutions, from FOCUS Staff and Friends:
To be a good steward of the resources I’ve been given.
Create a center of hope and hospitality this year.
Deepen my repentance in order to cultivate more of the precious and life-giving Holy Spirit.
Be more creative, and specifically to spend more time making things with my hands!
Complete the Master of Arts in Applied Orthodox Theology through Antiochian House of Studies, Balamand University, Lebanon.
Respond positively to every personal, social interaction in which I engage.
Always strive to see the best in everyone.
Attend church services more regularly.
Find joy in the present, especially in the people that are immediately in front of me.
Experience and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation every day.
What are your resolutions?