How has your New Year started? Are you almost through January with your new years resolutions intact?
Or maybe they didn’t last until the end of the first week or even day?
I remember giving up social media for Lent one – it lasted six hours before I was scrolling through Facebook.
You may have decided long ago that you wouldn’t do any resolutions, which is probably very wise. Its good to set ourselves new challenges and to look at ways to start afresh, but they need to be realistic and manageable, sometimes we can set ourselves great big changes, which when they fail leads to guilt and then not only do we fail the big challenge but it affects us to the point of setting us back from accomplishing anything.
The Salvation Army is directing its focus on how we can encourage people to flourish, how we can enable someone to reach their full potential and see their value in the world.
We aim to see the value of each person we encounter and to be a positive encourager to allow them the space to flourish. So how are you flourishing just where you are, are you surrounded by people who allow you to be you or are you finding that hard as you read this.
Are you feeling that you have failed at doing 2023 already?
I would encourage you, this year, to find people who will surround you with positive energy and to build you up.
Find a church or group or reach out to those friends who see the value in you and spend time getting some self-care this year.
‘There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.’ Philippians 1:6 (The Message)
Captain Jan Howlin from Wokingham Salvation Army writing on behalf on behalf of Churches Together in Wokingham
