A survey of 300,000 people resulted in the Top 10 Resolutions:
1) Weight loss/Get in shape
2) Stick to a budget
3) Debt reduction
4) Enjoy more quality time with family and friends
5) Find a spouse
6) Quite smoking
7) Get a better job/change careers
8) Learn a new skill/hobby
9) Volunteer/serve people
10) Get more organized
One wonders why no resolutions having to do with prayer or Bible study? We Americans claim that our faith is important, yet, we have no resolve to strengthen our faith?
The Bible has quite a bit of input regarding New Year’s resolutions. For example, “The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26: 41. “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it.” Luke 14: 28. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4: 7.
The Bible knows that resolutions are tough. Indeed, research shows that 40-45% of American adults make one or more resolutions/year. Seventy-five percent of resolutions are kept past the first week. Forty-six percent are still being kept after six months.
It is said that Super Bowl Sunday, which is now the first Sunday in February, is the day that America officially gives up its New Year’s resolutions. - DJ
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Pastor's Column Dec. 12, 2010
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and one of the biggest shopping days of the year. It’s the day that retailers turn a profit for the year and get into the “black.” Many retailers capitalize on this trend and hold limited-time sales that begin in the wee hours of the morning.
On Black Friday 2008, at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY, a crowd of more than 2,000 that had waited for a 5:00a.m.opening began pressing against the sliding-glass, double doors, which gave way at 4:55a.m.from the weight. As the consumer-crazed mob surged into the store, temporary Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour, 34, tried along with a few others to hold the crowd back. In the stampede, Damour was pushed to the floor, trampled, and pronounced dead an hour later at a local hospital.
Damour had no crowd control experience. He had worked for Wal-Mart only one week. The reason he was positioned by the door was simply his size, 6’5”, 270 lbs. Since then OSHA has criticized Target, Macy’s, Wal-Mart (which was fined $7,000), JC Penney, and other retailers, saying that they have to take precautions to prevent workers from getting hurt on Black Friday. Wal-Mart, for one, has changed its policy. The sale still begins at 5:00a.m., but most stores are open 24-hrs. Customers can wait for the sale to begin in areas within the building.
Many rightly criticize large retailers such as Wal-Mart for creating a situation in which people can get trampled. The crowd also is at fault. As Damour lay dying, people trying to get in the building jostled personnel trying to help him. And when Wal-Mart employees tried to empty the store as the ambulance arrived, shoppers refused, saying they’d waited in line for hours.
No deaths were reported this year, which might be attributed to higher security and crowd-reducing tactics; still, crowds were as cutthroat as ever. At a Mall in Murray, Utah, police arrived shortly after midnight. Nine different fights were reported, customers were tearing apart stores and overturning stacks of clothes, stores were forced to lock their doors to keep the crowd out. Three women in Palm Beach were the first in line to purchase $1,000 worth of electronics at a Best Buy. They locked the items in their car and continued shopping. Within five minutes, their windows had been smashed and their new purchases gone. At another Best Buy, a man attempting to steal a laptop stabbed a Marine in the back. The Marine was volunteering for “Toys for Tots” and tried to stop the man. And at a Toys ‘R’ Us in Middleton, Wis., a woman was arrested for threatening to shoot people if they didn’t let her cut in line.
Makes you think about God’s faithfulness, doesn’t it? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”… “Peace on earth, good will to all”… - DJ
On Black Friday 2008, at a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY, a crowd of more than 2,000 that had waited for a 5:00a.m.opening began pressing against the sliding-glass, double doors, which gave way at 4:55a.m.from the weight. As the consumer-crazed mob surged into the store, temporary Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour, 34, tried along with a few others to hold the crowd back. In the stampede, Damour was pushed to the floor, trampled, and pronounced dead an hour later at a local hospital.
Damour had no crowd control experience. He had worked for Wal-Mart only one week. The reason he was positioned by the door was simply his size, 6’5”, 270 lbs. Since then OSHA has criticized Target, Macy’s, Wal-Mart (which was fined $7,000), JC Penney, and other retailers, saying that they have to take precautions to prevent workers from getting hurt on Black Friday. Wal-Mart, for one, has changed its policy. The sale still begins at 5:00a.m., but most stores are open 24-hrs. Customers can wait for the sale to begin in areas within the building.
Many rightly criticize large retailers such as Wal-Mart for creating a situation in which people can get trampled. The crowd also is at fault. As Damour lay dying, people trying to get in the building jostled personnel trying to help him. And when Wal-Mart employees tried to empty the store as the ambulance arrived, shoppers refused, saying they’d waited in line for hours.
No deaths were reported this year, which might be attributed to higher security and crowd-reducing tactics; still, crowds were as cutthroat as ever. At a Mall in Murray, Utah, police arrived shortly after midnight. Nine different fights were reported, customers were tearing apart stores and overturning stacks of clothes, stores were forced to lock their doors to keep the crowd out. Three women in Palm Beach were the first in line to purchase $1,000 worth of electronics at a Best Buy. They locked the items in their car and continued shopping. Within five minutes, their windows had been smashed and their new purchases gone. At another Best Buy, a man attempting to steal a laptop stabbed a Marine in the back. The Marine was volunteering for “Toys for Tots” and tried to stop the man. And at a Toys ‘R’ Us in Middleton, Wis., a woman was arrested for threatening to shoot people if they didn’t let her cut in line.
Makes you think about God’s faithfulness, doesn’t it? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”… “Peace on earth, good will to all”… - DJ
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Pastor's Column Dec. 5, 2010
The following is a letter to Dear Abby from a Christmas past:
“Dear Abby, My granddaughter took me to a large shopping center. While she finished her shopping, I waited in the food court, watching the crowd.
All of a sudden, a woman who had just walked by turned back, put her arms around me, gave me a squeeze and said, “You are blessed. You have saved my day.”
Confused, I asked, “What did I do?”
“You smiled at me,” she answered, and then walked away.
Abby, I’ll be 99 in a few months. I have smiled all my life, but never dreamed it could make such a difference in someone’s life. I promised myself then and there to smile a lot more, and I hope those who read this will resolve to do the same. It takes only 13 muscles to smile, and it’s worth the effort.” – Kathryn of a Million Smiles
Something to think about in the hustle and bustle of the season.
“Dear Abby, My granddaughter took me to a large shopping center. While she finished her shopping, I waited in the food court, watching the crowd.
All of a sudden, a woman who had just walked by turned back, put her arms around me, gave me a squeeze and said, “You are blessed. You have saved my day.”
Confused, I asked, “What did I do?”
“You smiled at me,” she answered, and then walked away.
Abby, I’ll be 99 in a few months. I have smiled all my life, but never dreamed it could make such a difference in someone’s life. I promised myself then and there to smile a lot more, and I hope those who read this will resolve to do the same. It takes only 13 muscles to smile, and it’s worth the effort.” – Kathryn of a Million Smiles
Something to think about in the hustle and bustle of the season.
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