I’ve never been a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. I actually don’t understand all the hype about the new year in general, but resolutions seem especially odd since so many people make promises to themselves they seldom keep. Sure, it’s good to strive to loose weight, read more, watch TV less, etc., but for most people it lasts a few weeks at best and then they go on with life as it used to be.


Over the past week or so I’ve been reflecting on Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions. His 70 resolutions weren’t trendy goals for the new year, but purposeful steps for discipline for his entire life and ministry. Here’s a bit of background on Resolutions from Stephen J. Nichols:

“When he wrote these seventy resolutions, Edwards was completing his schooling and ministerial training and was anticipating setting out on his life’s work. He took advantage of the opportunity to pause and reflect on the type of person he wanted to be and the way in which he wanted to live his life.

In a manner that would typify his entire career, he took up his pen and, in the moments of quiet he could wrest from a busy day, wrote the guidelines, the systems of checks and balances he would use to chart out his life—his relationship, his conversations, his desires, his activities. In short, through these resolutions he offers himself his own advice…

Edwards prefaces his Resolutions with an exhortation to ‘remember to read over these resolutions once a week.’ Perhaps this bit of advice is also worthy of our imitation. The Resolutions are as relevant today as they were when he first penned them so long ago. Reading through them on a regular basis may very well help us also to live with all of our might to the glory and praise of God.” (Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions and Advices to Young Converts ed. Stephen J. Nichols, pages 5 & 12)

You can read the resolutions online, and it may be good to also print them out and post them somewhere. The booklet by Dr. Nichols I quoted from is handy to have on the nightstand and gives some background on Resolutions, as well as Advice to Young Converts.