Either way, there's no sense in feeling like a failure when your "best laid plans gang aft agley," as the poet Burns would say. (It means "go astray.") If it's a journey you're meant to take, you can take it anytime. July 15th is every bit as good a day to start as January 1st is. Instead of putting energy into feeling bad about failed resolutions, put it into something new: Being open to change itself.

Why not start fresh? Say, with conviction, "God, do what You will with me, this year and always." By being attuned to God's will and ready to follow it wherever it leads, you put yourself in better stead than forcing change on yourself, then feeling bad when it doesn't work out. Trust that the right path will be opened to You. And then, be ready to take it, on whatever day of the calendar year it happens to be.

A new me in the New Year? If that's what God wants, I'm in. But maybe that's not the plan. Whatever it is, however, I'm ready.

Help me to quit trying
to change things through worry.
Teach me to speak through You,
and my life will change automatically.
When I learn to change my thoughts,
my life change will begin,
from the inside out.

I try so hard to have peace.
In the midst of my tribulation,
I declare Your love and power!

Help me to free myself
from anxiety in my thought-life.
I declare a fast from wrong thinking!

I feel life through my emotions,
I declare joy to come!

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