- Feb 5, 2002
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At the start of each new year, many of us examine our lives and, based on what we know of ourselves and how we receive the overly harsh, ever-hectoring judgments of the world, make resolutions for our self-improvement. We make promises to ourselves — and sometimes to God and our families: We’re going to be thinner; we’re going to become patient; we’re going to embrace disciplines that will help us grow as human beings.
Most of us won’t keep our promises for very long, and often the first ones to hit the pavement with a resounding “splat” are those we’ve made to heaven, or to our families.
The reason for that is simple: No matter how much we want to change some aspect of ourselves, God knows us intimately, as do our families. Where there is intimacy, we generally let go of artifice, because we can — because we know that where we are loved unconditionally, we are loved in all of our faults and weaknesses, and thank God for that. The world of work acquaintances, friends and the utter strangers who populate our social media threads (and to whom we hand over way too much of ourselves for inspection and eventual verdicts, yay or nay) is very different.
For their “likes” or button-conveyed “hearts,” we may work at our resolutions just a little bit longer, because we are truly addicted to those dopamine hits of instant approval. Also, we have been conditioned by marketers and ad campaigns to believe that no, we’re not good enough as we are — not in our looks, our homes, not even in how we do laundry. Don’t you know that if your T-shirts don’t smell like springtime, you’re failing?
Continued below.
www.osvnews.com
Most of us won’t keep our promises for very long, and often the first ones to hit the pavement with a resounding “splat” are those we’ve made to heaven, or to our families.
The reason for that is simple: No matter how much we want to change some aspect of ourselves, God knows us intimately, as do our families. Where there is intimacy, we generally let go of artifice, because we can — because we know that where we are loved unconditionally, we are loved in all of our faults and weaknesses, and thank God for that. The world of work acquaintances, friends and the utter strangers who populate our social media threads (and to whom we hand over way too much of ourselves for inspection and eventual verdicts, yay or nay) is very different.
For their “likes” or button-conveyed “hearts,” we may work at our resolutions just a little bit longer, because we are truly addicted to those dopamine hits of instant approval. Also, we have been conditioned by marketers and ad campaigns to believe that no, we’re not good enough as we are — not in our looks, our homes, not even in how we do laundry. Don’t you know that if your T-shirts don’t smell like springtime, you’re failing?
Continued below.
‘It is Good’: 3 messages to take to heart in the new year - OSV News
At the start of each new year, many of us examine our lives and, based on what we know of ourselves and how we receive the overly harsh, ever-hectoring judgments of the world, make resolutions for our self-improvement. We make promises to ourselves -- and sometimes to God and our families: We're...
www.osvnews.com
