“Jacob replied, ‘I have traveled this earth for 130 hard years.’” (Genesis 47:9, NLT).

     I admired her and at the same time I felt badly for her. I watched from a distance as a young mother pushed a stroller with two toddlers up a steep incline. Her diminutive stature didn’t do her any favors for this particular task.

“I appeared to them from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love” (Jeremiah 31:3, NIV).

     Author, David Prince, once told of a family who adopted an older child from an unspeakably horrific orphanage in another country. When they brought the little girl home, one of the things they told her was that she was expected to clean her room every day. When she heard about that responsibility, she fixated on it and saw it as a way she would earn her family’s love.

“[God] says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth’” (Psalm 46:10, NIV).

     Between the ages of thirty and forty-five Ludwig van Beethoven slowly lost his hearing. In frustration Beethoven wrote, “From a distance I do not hear the high notes of the instruments and the singers’ voices.” The maestro had to pound the keys of the piano so forcefully that he often damaged the instrument.

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord” (Colossians 3:13).

     Malachy McCourt once said, “Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” Sadly, people who harbor grudges fail to recognize how much stress they bring upon themselves. The fact is that grudges punish the grudge bearer far more than the one who deserves the punishment.

“Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side. Think about the things above and not things on earth” (Colossians 3:1-2, CEB).

      The time has arrived to make a resolution. I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions. Yet I once told my wife one year that I resolved to get into better shape. Round. She was not impressed.

“I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints” (Philemon 1:7,ESV).