I don’t imagine this comes as news to anyone, but today marks the beginning of a new year. We’ve put away 2024 and are moving into 2025. And I don’t remember anyone checking with me to see if I was ready. Being ready for the new year, or for any event on the calendar for that matter, isn’t really an issue. It happens, ready or not. So we might as well enjoy it.

It’s traditonal to do resolutions this time of year. I used to try them. They don’t work for me, so I’ve started doing something I heard from some folks on the radio a few years back. I choose a term or two that I want to be my emphasis for the coming year. I find it is a lot less defeating than realizing I’ve broken all my resolutions by the end of the first month. Here is my term for 2025.

Intentionality. I want to spend my life and time that makes it up more intentionally this year. I have found since I retired from full-time teaching that I allow too much time to slip past me without my notice. That’s not to say I want to be busy all the time. Part of the joy of retirement is having more time to rest, reflect, and contemplate. But I haven’t really been doing much of that. What I have been doing is what is now apparently known as doomscrolling. I get up when Sarah does because our furry alarm clock Benedict would have it no other way. I take him for a short walk, feed him his breakfast, give him his morning pills (he has a seizure disorder), drink coffee, and read my devotions while my beloved dashes around getting ready for work. After that, I make something to eat and then life basically stops for anywhere from an hour to half the day. I usually watch reels on Facebook. I keep saying to myself that this is the last one, but it isn’t. Before I know it, it’s lunchtime and my to-do list still looms before me. I haven’t been to the gym. I haven’t emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I haven’t been to the grocery story for dinner. I haven’t studied my Bible or done anything to prepare for Sunday School or Wednesday youth group, depending on what time of the week it is. I haven’t read anything, and I certainly haven’t written anything.

As I said, retirement can afford one more time to relax, contemplate, and reflect. It’s just that I’m not doing that. I’m vegetating. There’s a time for that, too, but not nearly as much time as I’ve been giving it. So, in 2025, I want to be more intentional about how I use the ever more limited commodity of time. I want to fill the hours with things that will edify me and enable me to edify the people around me, especially Sarah. Things that will help me grow closer to God. Things like reading, writing, studying my Bible, praying, working around the house, doing projects, pursuing hobbies, and exercising.

So, I’m going to be using my calendar more daily to make plans for my days. I want to sit down each morning and think about what I’d really like to do that day, figure out the best way to do it, and then get started. It could be on a given day that what I want to do really is to sit around and watch sports or something else fun on TV. But I want that to be something I choose and not what I end up doing instead of something else I really would enjoy doing and would make me feel better at the end of the day.

That’s my guiding word for 2025. What is yours? I’d love to hear it.