{"id":423,"date":"2008-12-31T10:09:37","date_gmt":"2008-12-31T15:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shieldsgroup.com\/?p=423"},"modified":"2009-10-09T16:17:02","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T21:17:02","slug":"new-years-resolutions-that-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/31\/new-years-resolutions-that-work\/","title":{"rendered":"New Years Resolutions that Work…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JonathanAt least they worked well for Jonathan Edwards<\/strong> (1703-1758), an early American Congregational preacher and theologian. Many would assert that Edwards was one of America’s most important thinkers.<\/p>\n

At just 19 years of age,<\/strong> Edwards wrote and adopted 70 resolutions he used to govern his decision making process through-out his life. Some of them follow.<\/p>\n

Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly intreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. RESOLVED,\tThat I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. RESOLVED,\tto do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general.<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. RESOLVED,\tNever to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. RESOLVED,\tto live with all my might, while I do live.<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. RESOLVED,\tNever to do anything, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.<\/em><\/li>\n
  6. RESOLVED,\tNever to do anything out of revenge.<\/em><\/li>\n
  7. RESOLVED,\tNever to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonour, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.<\/em><\/li>\n
  8. RESOLVED,\tTo study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.<\/em><\/li>\n
  9. RESOLVED,\tNever to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession which I cannot hope God will accept.<\/em><\/li>\n
  10. RESOLVED,\tTo ask myself, at the end of every day, week, month, and year, wherein I could possibly, in any respect, have done better.<\/em><\/li>\n
  11. RESOLVED,\tNever to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.<\/em><\/li>\n
  12. RESOLVED,\tAfter afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them; what good I have got by them; and, what I might got by them.<\/em><\/li>\n
  13. RESOLVED,\tAlways to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    May my heart resolve to make decisions in similar ways.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    At least they worked well for Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), an early American Congregational preacher and theologian. Many would assert that Edwards was one of America’s most important thinkers. At just 19 years of age, Edwards wrote and adopted 70 resolutions … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,3,1],"tags":[31,436],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-godly-living","category-relationships","category-spiritual-life","tag-quotes","tag-resolutions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvmV-6P","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}