Found this great article. Be Blessed.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/4-new-years-resolutions-you-should-consider-131929/

4 New Year's Resolutions You Should Consider!

It's inevitable and universal, as soon as Christmas winds down and December 31 appears on our phones, we all face a new year with new opportunities. Many are resolving to lose weight or gain greater income or set some other goal, typically requiring will power and time management skills -- both of which often fade within a few weeks.

If God were writing our resolutions, what do you think He would come up with?

New Year's ResolutionsI think God wants us to make "time for a change."

Throughout the Bible, we see that God is a God of change. He's the ultimate game-changer, a change-agent that changes things, people, hearts and minds.

But it requires a slight, but powerful, paradigm shift of the rudders steering our energies and expressions. We're all given the same amount of time, and as hard as we try, our calendars often have more control over our schedules and lives than we realize. We get caught trying to do more within our allotted days, leading us to fatigue and frustration when we can't check off the items on our list.

God doesn't have the same time management problem we do. He's "omni-everything." He is The Great I am, who was and is and is to come. He's the Alpha and Omega. What really matters if we look through His lens that's not restricted to a clock? How should we use our time in His mind? What does God consider effective use of our time?

From His vantage point, life is more of a question about priority and perspective, not time -- a life of meaning, not efficiency.

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The Bible says our lifespan is like a "vapor" that vanishes quickly.

"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." -- James 4:13-14

After reading that, you can feel that God is way more concerned about meaning rather than urgency or efficiency. He wants us to do the meaningful things now, because we may not have time tomorrow.

Instead of making a list of resolutions and trying to cram more into your day, consider making just one. Make time for a change. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Look for Jesus Interruptions. Be like Mary who stopped everything to sit at Jesus' feet to be with Him, instead of Martha who got caught in the busy trap (Luke 10:38-42). In fact, Jesus gave us in verse 42 the only resolution necessary and Mary chose wisely. Being with Jesus, changes your perspective on life but you have to recognize His interruptions and respond, instead of carrying on with your busy life.

Make time with Jesus daily, and you will benefit all other areas of your life.

2. Look for Opportunities to Love Others. I think we often lose touch with opportunities to love others while scurrying to scratch off our to-do list. Being busy is not a badge of honor. We all know where the time goes, we just don't like the answer. Looking back, what were the most significant moments of your life? Were they planned and executed? Perhaps a few. But the moments of true meaning are when we stopped the world to attend to a relationship.

Be available for loved ones going through crisis, large or small, to create moments of meaning.

3. Look for What is Unseen. In2 Corinthians 4:18 "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." What does that mean? Be aware of God's eternal plan and adjust your temporary plans to accommodate. The Living Bible translation of Proverbs 19:21 says that "Man proposes, but God disposes" referring our plans versus His.

Make time for a change in your vision and look to accomplish eternal purposes.

4. Look to Create Rich Relationships. I think we all could use a little re-framing on this one. We spend so much effort earning money, instead of investing in relationships with those right in front of us -- our kids, spouse, family, neighbors and friends. I doubt your accountant will give your eulogy. There are no U-hauls in heaven. Relationships are eternal. Since relationships require communication, take time to learn to ask better questions and listen. The old saying is true, "people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

It takes wisdom to make time for a change, and adjust your calendar to do what is really important. This year, when you look at your calendar, what will really shape your life?

Source:

0. Stop believing bull shit.

-1. Be.

On Christmas Day I attended my girlfriend's great-aunt's house for a Christmas dinner. Her great-aunt is a Catholic nun, and she had another Catholic nun with her as well. It was just the four of us.

After supper as my girlfriend's great-aunt was doing the dishes she began to encourage us to "talk to Jesus", before realizing she didn't know anything of my beliefs and asked us. I told her I was an atheist. Oh, man, was that painful. I can tear people apart on the debate, but it's no fun doing it to somebody that I know can't handle it and simultaneously isn't forcing the issue on me either. I cringed through her talking nonsense for 10 minutes, forcing a smile and nod, before she finally receded and changed the subject. In that 10 minutes she probably managed to pull my girlfriend a little bit back to the crazy side of the debate, which is perfectly fine by me, but it took a lot of self-discipline to sit through that with guns holstered.

The woman is a nun. 80+ years old. She has been a nun for most of her life. There's no point trying to change her mind now. What would that accomplish? Make her aware of all the time and opportunities she has wasted? No way. This way her ignorance gives her great bliss and there's nothing to gain by changing her mind now. I still have to roll my eyes at all of you others that have only wasted parts of your lives on this nonsense, and still have plenty of time to live life to the fullest without it.

I wholeheartedly agree with spending your time wisely: doing the things that you love, and spending time with the people that you love. Fuck all that "god" shit though. It's 2015. It's time to stop believing in imaginary people in the sky that mass murder people they purport to be responsible for while simultaneously being defined as "good". It's really scary how weak the human brain is. If you're not a strong thinker then maybe leave the big problems to others and focus on what you do well.

Append:

I think think NiteHackr's beliefs are nonsense, but at least he takes a smart approach to them. He's absolutely right that churches teach their own interpretations of the Bible, and they make it sound like they're preaching the words right from god's own mouth while doing it. At least by reading and studying the Bible yourself you can form your own ideas. That said, I can't imagine how anybody can go from cover to cover of the Bible and still believe.

I also like how you pointed out the "Jesus Interruptions" bullshit. The Bible has no such mention that I have ever seen or heard of. That is a man-made idea. Without bothering to look into it, I'd imagine it is giving a name to the delusions believers have about having seen signs of god or Jesus. I think it's extra sad that people don't question where these ideas come from.

@bam I get it – you’re an atheist. You should still capitalize “God”

"Zeus was a God that the Ancient Greeks Worshipped with Fanfare and Celebrations."

I thought this was about grammar...

Strictly speaking, "yes", but then strictly speaking uppercasing pronouns referring to your god would be required to be entirely lowercase. Except for this thing called "reverential capitals", which basically translates to "enough people do it that it's pseudo-correct." And by that definition, enough people also lowercase "god" when referring to the character's name for that also to be pseudo-correct.

There is also the defense that in a monotheistic religion, which is the only one that could logically use "God" as a name for a god without being confusing, there exists only one, "gods" is nonsensical, and so the singular "god" also makes sense in place of his name. Or so I'd argue.

The point is, I think most atheists do it to spite theists that believe it's OK to have special grammatical rules for their beliefs, and defend their right to do so while simultaneously considering it disrespectful and offensive to not capitalize god's name.

I'm not 100% in either camp. Often I'll capitalize "God" as a force of habit from my childhood as a theist, and often I'll consciously lowercase "god" in order to provide the same level of respect to others as is given to me.

A large number of atheists used to be devout theists so don't assume you know so much more than they do. The exact same stereotype applies equally to theists, and returning it back to you puts us into circles. The difference is I'm amused by the debate because my mind is open to it. I can't be permanently wrong because I can freely change my mind at any time. For me it is an exercise in sharing knowledge and bettering my own understanding of the world, and most often getting amused by the theists' complete lack of openness as well as rational arguments.

Actually, "God" is just the title or executive position, "Yahweh" or something is supposedly the real name.

And how exactly is it I cannot live life to the fullest because I know GOD exists? I feel that obeying God's laws leads one to have a better life and avoid many problems.

It would be refreshing to have a discussion with fellow believers sometime without the attacks. But I guess the Atheists felt the part of the topic which said "Directed at Christians" meant to direct your hostilities towards them.

As for me and my bible, yup, I have read it cover to cover and studied it in depth and continue to do so. Actually I have several bibles, a couple NIVs, a KJV and a NKJV and I plan to buy an expanded bible sometime soon as it looks especially good for study (if you are a Christian, check it out sometime, it has notes embedded into it). I also have Strong's Exhaustive concordance and I take a very intellectual approach to studying the word of God, I also look into the original words which were translated into English as the bible was originally written in Hebrew, some Aramaic (book of Daniel) and Greek. Ironically, my father is an Atheist and he celebrates Christmas, I believe in God and I do not (pagan tradition, not Christian at all). Go figure that one out!

I'd say it's more like "Out of the hundreds of gods men have invented, which should I choose as the most likely to exist? Aw, hell with it, choose None Of The Above!"

[EDIT]

I said "Hell with it" as if I believed!
And now I notice the update stamp is older than the original post? It's a sign from above!

Do please keep in mind that there are a lot of atheist members of this site, and only a very small minority have chosen to be hostile.

One does not need to believe in a god to not be an asshole.