MAKE 2022 A BETTER YEAR!
Today I give you wise advice and practical ideas, guaranteed to make 2022 a better year for you and yours!
Ditch the stupid, useless mask and smile at people once again!
Embrace freedom. Live free. It was for freedom Christ set us free. Freedom through Christ, freedom to obey Christ. Refuse to be a slave of this culture, a slave of their lies. Embrace slavery to Christ, which is the truest form of freedom!
Read from your Bible every single day this year. Highlight with a bright orange marker each verse that speaks to you.
Pray with your spouse every single day this year. No more excuses.
Pay off at least one debt this year.
Get outside for a brisk mile walk every day the weather allows.
Do 30 pushups every day, 3 sets of ten.
Simplify your life in every way you can. Embrace a minimalist way of life. Less really is more.
Get more real with God this year. He will become more real to you!
Determine to eat healthy, nutritious foods, and buy them more inexpensively from places like Aldi, Sams, or Costco. I build my plan almost completely around what Aldi and Costco sell. It is a simple plan, very affordable, healthy, and nutritious, and I eat the same things 7 days a week. For families, consider breakfast and lunch the same each day, with an evening family meal menu plan for each day of the week, rotated over and over again during the month.
Ditch the soft drinks, sodas, and just drink water. Get a Berkey to purify your water, and save lots of money, while drinking super clean water. You will feel better as a result.
Find some ways to save more money this year. Get a cheaper phone plan, like Ting, or stop buying Starbucks coffee, and make your own at home. Buy your gas at Costco, or some other less expensive place. Cancel a subscription of some kind. Stop eating fast food. Find some ways to smack inflation in the face!
Get more grateful, thankful, and express these to God every day. You will feel a whole lot better this year if you do and it will draw you much closer to God.
Stop being cruel or mean to your spouse, and start being kinder. God says: Your own soul is nourished when you are kind, it is destroyed when you are cruel. There is tremendous power in the practice of this truth. The kinder you are in your marriage the better it will be and the better you will feel!
Spend some more time with your children this year. Create a movie night, or pizza night, or game night, or morning breakfast ritual of making something special to eat together. Find a way, make a way!
Take better control of your schedule this year, and make sure you are keeping your most important priorities. Make sure the kids’ schedules and activities are manageable, worthwhile, and useful and don’t run you into the ground.
Take some time at the beginning of this new year, look back over last year, and make a list of God’s blessings to you in 2021. It will encourage you, and will inspire your faith and prayers for the new year.
Find a place of service this year, in something you are passionate about, that you feel called by God to do. I was so touched visiting with my 85-year-old mother recently, as she told me about the Hymn sing she does on a regular basis on Sunday nights, for the older people living in her apartment building, and the way she still serves little children helping in Good News Clubs. Serving others is where real life is found!
Get to bed at a consistent time this year, and get up at a consistent time every day. You will notice a significant difference in your attitude and your energy.
Find a couple of new ways to serve your wife this year. Help put kids to bed. Vacuum the house. Fill her vehicle with gas every week. Help organize the kids to clean off the table after evening meals. Step up your game this year men!
Intentionally reach out to someone less fortunate than you are, particularly another Christian going through difficult circumstances. Be generous with them and help them. Whether here or abroad. Help a Christian in need.
Reacquaint yourself with your future! Reread Revelation 19, 20, 21, 22 NLT. Reread 2 Peter 3:1-13 NLT! Refocus your eyes and renew your perspective, Colossian 3:1-4 NLT. These will reinvigorate you as you use your imagination, envisioning what is coming!
Make the very best and most of the situation and reality you find yourself in right now. Find the divine perspective in your situation. Learn to flower where God has planted you.
Find more joy in the Lord this year! The Joy of the Lord is your strength!! Get to know God better this year and your joy will increase.
Write and create your own Dissident Creed! It will greatly empower you.
My movie tip of the year: You have to see Montford:The Chickasaw Rancher. True story. A great movie about fatherhood, family, sacrifice, perseverance, faith and devotion. Loved this film! It’s on Netflix or rent it on Amazon. Very well done film. I related to it tremendously.
*If you want to see my Dissident Creed to get an idea, just email me and ask, I will send it to you.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
