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New Year's Resolutions
It will soon be that time of year again when people make new year resolutions that will only last a few weeks. Those Christians that have never read the whole Bible will resolve to read it in a year. Those who are overweight will join a gym and resolve to work out several times a week at the gym. My advice to all is to make resolutions you can keep. When I was in grade school, I got a little pudgy. I even got the nickname Porky. It was partly because I wasn't very athletic. I hated baseball and my interests were electronics and radio. I prayed that the Lord would fix that. My Dad bought me an exercise kit. One of the things in it was 2 wooden bars that were supposed to be connected with 2 heavy duty springs. My cousin had a chin up bar, so I got the idea to screw 2 hooks in the beams in the basement and hang one of those bars on the hooks. Every day I would try to pull myself up and finally I was able to do so.

My sister, Me at 10 or 12 ,and ?

My Dad at 56

My chin-up bar today in our garage. I am 5'7" My bar is 6'8" high

Me at 15

Me at 48 My Dad at 88

Dad at 95
   I remember about the time I was entering high school my mom saying something like, "He's really slimming down he must be growing out of it". I must give the Lord credit for Dad giving me the exercise kit and for putting the idea in my head to put up a chin up bar, but it never occurred to me until recently that it was probably the chin up bar that caused me to slim down. If you make a resolution to work out at the gym 3 times a week (It takes at least 3 times a week to build and 2 to maintain) you probably won't keep it. If you make a resolution to pick 1 or 2 simple exercises (pushups, sit-ups, etc) to try to do every or at least most mornings, you might. If you can't do a push up, or sit up, or chin up, if you try every morning, men eventually will be able to do so, but most women never develop the upper body strength to do a chin-up. My wife Cece pulls up as far as she can several times every morning though, and it is good exercise. These days I do 4 chin-ups, and some knee bends most mornings. Some mornings I forget. If I forget too many times however, then I struggle to do them. You don't need fancy equipment or a gym membership, Just 5 minutes in the morning.
   My dad used to walk about a mile to the train station when he worked in downtown Chicago, but when he started his own business, he drove to work and started putting on weight, so he started doing about 15 minutes of sit-ups, jumping jacks, running in place, etc every morning. He kept that up until he was 95 and then he got lazy. He died at 99 He was pretty healthy until the last few years.

Many make the resolution to read the Bible through in a year. I suggest you start small and stick with it. The Bible has 1189 chapters. The shortest chapter (Psalm 117) has 2 verses. The longest chapter (Psalms 119) has 176 verses. If you just read an average of 1 chapter a day you will finish it every 3 years. I will warn you however that there are parts of the Bible that are very interesting and hard to put down. However, the first time you read the Bible there are parts you will find boring, and will want to skim through. Like the instructions God gave to Moses in Lev 20-32 or the genealogies, or the land divisions in the book of numbers. That's ok. Keep reading.
   Please don't blindly believe whatever your pastor or denomination tells you. That would be like eating already chewed food. I really believe that everyone should read the Bible through over and over again. God will show you the truth if you will read and listen.
Jer 29:13-14 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. NKJV
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