One who is putting on his armor should not boast like one who is taking it off. 1 Kings 20:11

Here it is, six days into the New Year and I am claiming victory in the pursuit of my New Year’s Resolution 2011.  It’s the first time I have ever been in compliance with my resolution for a full five days – that’s almost a whole week!  Well, actually I was in 100 percent compliance with half of my resolution...

I like to keep my resolution fairly simple and traditional.  For the past 20 years or so, it has been to eat less and exercise more.  This year, however, I did things a little differently.  This may be the reason I have enjoyed such great success.  This year, I vowed to eat healthier and exercise.  After day two, I pretty much knew the exercise part of the equation was a waste of time. However, January 1 through January 5, I had no ice cream, not a single cookie, no Sonic burgers, no Little Debbie cakes, and not even a bite of a Snickers.  It was tough, but I survived. 

Until yesterday.  Somebody gave me a Starbucks gift card for Christmas…best gift ever for me.  I drove through the Starbucks drive-through (where, much like CHEERS, everybody knows my name) and was going to order my regular tall with a little cream.  Something wonderful and yummy sounding caught my eye on the menu board, but I stuck to my resolve…until I got to the speaker. 

“I’ll have a tall….Venti Double Chocolate Chip Blended Crème Frappuccino with the Whipped Crème Topping,” I spit out in one long syllable.  “But, hold the chocolate shavings, please.”

WHAT?  What was I thinking?  Where did that come from?  My hands were sweating and a little shaky when I handed my Starbucks card to the forever-perky young lady at the window.  “Ah, do you happen to know how many calories are in this frap?”  I asked her.  “They typically do not give us that information,” she bounced out at me with the biggest whitest teeth I have ever seen, making it quite obvious that she never had coffee pass over those pearly whites in her entire life.  “You can go to our website and get that information.”

Twenty minutes later and about $5.50 poorer, I looked up the vital statistics of my 2011 New Year’s Resolution nemesis.  Weighing in at a whopping 550 calories and 11 grams of fat, this little delight totally threw my healthy eating declaration for a loop.  Worst of all, it was 8 am and I had eaten nothing yet.

Having blown my goal yesterday, it was much easier to order an Egg McMuffin with my small coffee, one cream added, at McDonalds this morning.  So much for resolutions…

Psychologists say that 78 percent of us who make New Year’s Resolutions fail within the first few weeks. Because of that, we feel like a failure which adds to the pressure we place on ourselves to do or stop doing whatever it is that we feel needs to be changed about ourselves.  In reality, resolutions are often just empty promises we make to ourselves - much like political campaign promises or unrealistic sales pitches that we always get trapped in.  I mean, really, how many times have you voted for someone based on something they said they would do that never got done.  How many times have you ordered some new gadget that sold for $19.95 (paid in three easy payments) that never worked??  Promises, promises.

“Gonna-do” and “Planning-to” are first cousins to “Shoulda-done” and “Oughta-have” and I have decided I just don’t need that family in my life anymore.

Therefore, I am proposing a policy of “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” as far as New Year’s Resolutions are concerned.  Next year, I’m not telling anyone what my BIG goal is for the year.  I’m going to wait until I ACHIEVE the goal before I start boosting about it.  As a matter of fact, the Bible speaks to me about making resolutions and declarations in 1 Kings 20:11.  Ahab, king of Israel, is being attacked by by Ben-Hadad, king of Aram. Ben-Hadad sent threatening messages, trying to intimidate Ahab. Ahab told Ben-Hadad’s messenger, "Tell him this: ‘One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.'"   In other words, don’t be bragging about doing something until you have done it.  Great advice.
Ya’ll won’t be hearing from me about what I’m gonna do until I have taken my armor off.