IS THIS GREETING A declaration, or a question? Is your happiness in the coming year a wish, or is it a resolution? I suppose it depends on whether you believe happiness is contingent on circumstance, or a matter of commitment.

If you’re one of those people who believe that conditions outside yourself determine happiness, chances are you also believe:

• That people “fall in love,” rather than that they DECIDE to love.
• That anger is something others “MAKE YOU FEEL,” rather than a CHOSEN response.
• That for all practical purposes, God is impotent, and His promises are meaningless.

Whether life is LUCK or PROVIDENCE depends on one’s orientation to the Sovereignty of God. Unaided by divine intervention, the most careful planner, the shrewdest manager of life, may be undone by unkind circumstance.

On the other hand, the most innocent babe traveling through this jungle will not be deprived of true happiness if he responds to life’s adversities out of conviction that “in all things, God works for good.” [Romans 8:28]

“HAPPY NEW YEAR” is a choice. To deny that is to deny the faith. God’s people are NEVER at the mercy of circumstance. If that be true, why not commit yourself to a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

• I will do more than BELONG – I will PARTICIPATE.
• I will do more than CARE – I will HELP.
• I will do more than BELIEVE – I will PRACTICE.
• I will do more than be FAIR – I will be KIND.
• I will do more than FORGIVE – I will LOVE.
• I will do more than EARN – I will ENRICH.
• I will do more than TEACH – I will SERVE.
• I will do more than LIVE – I will GROW.
• I will do more than be FRIENDLY – I will be a FRIEND.

Author Unknown