New Year's Resolutions
Dr. Jane C. Pan
December 29, 2006
While everyone is busy celebrating the New Year, many are also making New
Year's resolutions for 2007. New Year's resolutions are decisions for changes
based on last year's failures. When one is making a New Year's resolutions,
one has to reflect on the weaknesses or failures of changes attempted in the
past.
Some of the popular New Year's resolutions are losing weight, pay off the
debts, stop smoking, drink less alcohol, reduce stress, take a trip, etc.
Here are some of the New Year's resolutions that I suggest for enriching
your marriage:
-
Be effective communicators. For example, try to listen before you
speak. If you are prone to get angry in your communication, remember the
wise saying "Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slower even in getting
angry."
-
Be available for your spouse. Spend more quality time with your
spouse. Such as go on a hike together, camp together, picnic together.
Take a well-planned vacation together. Do a two-some and have fun with
it.
-
Be nice to your spouse. Bond with your spouse as the way you bond
with close friends. If you treat your spouse as if you treat your
friends, you will gain a soul mate and a best friend.
-
Be healthy together. Encourage each other to eat well. Develop
good and healthy habits of eating and exercising.
-
Be helpful to others together. Join a church or a volunteer
organization for servitude. Helping others will reap rewards of
helping yourselves.
-
Be prepared to learn new ways to enhance your marriage.
Register for a "Marriage Enrichment" seminar. Find and learn new
ways to make your marriages even better.
My husband and I constantly evaluate our marriage and communication skills.
We evaluate our relationships and openly talk about our weaknesses and
strengths. We look, see where our common grounds are, and try to support each
other. For example, I love to do Chinese watercolor and wish I had enough time
to enjoy this special hobby. My husband would encourage me and take all the
paintings I have done and take pictures of them. He is always proud to share
those photos with our friends.
We both love outdoor activities such as gardening, hiking, and swimming. At
times when we see each other overworked and stressed out, we give each other a
rub in the back. Sometimes we go on a "date" to see a nice movie and eat in a
recommended restaurant. When we have some quiet time, we both would indulge
ourselves in some good books and share with each other afterwards.
My New Year's Resolutions this year are many, but I will share with you
just two of them. The first is never to say something to my husband that I
will regret later, always be positive and wise in my speech. Whenever
situations happen that look negative or horrible, I want to see the good side
and share that with my husband. The world is in a sad shape now and I do not
want to add anymore negativism to our thinking. I would like to be the woman
spoken of by this famous proverb, "When she speaks, her words are wise, and
kindness is the rule when she gives instructions." Second, no matter how busy
I am I want to be available to my husband first. That means whenever he needs
me, I will drop whatever I am doing and help him. My husband is a big man in
my eyes. However, he does not want to appear weak before me. I know and
respect him very much. Even though he had gone through a dreaded illness for
the past year, he still looks tall, handsome, and strong to me.
Take some time and reflect on your marriage for the past year of 2006. Was
your marriage healthy and strong? Are you constantly arguing? Do you want to
have a happy and meaningful marriage for life? What are some of the strengths
of your marriage? What are some of the weaknesses of your marriage? Which area
of your marriage can you enrich and make your lives more meaningful and
exciting?
May you all have wonderful and happy marriages for 2007! May God grant you
His peace!
