Daniel Jay Bryant

I have been inundated with lots of people that I know coming up with some awesome New Years Resolutions. To name a few there’s Ryan Wheat’s Blog http://project3hundred.wordpress.com/ in his words: “In the Marine Corps 300 is the highest score attained on the PFT or Physical Fitness Test. After 8 years in the Corps I never attained a perfect 300.”

There’s Amanda Steed’s blog http://iamamandasteed.com/ where she’s committing to blogging once a week, and throwing music in the mix, some of her own recordings, and covers as well. My wife is even chiming in with a few less concrete goals, but we’re working on that.

I felt that I was lacking direction when I saw others turning over a new leaf and I didn’t have something that mattered to me. And not that I need something, but I love taking control of where my life is going, and being able to measure my progress.

I have a primary New Years Resolution that is very tangible:

Study the New Testament in 2010
I LOVE God’s word. Period. I’ve read the New Testament, but not through in one year. Much less, with depth and retention. This should give me more direction and motivation to wake up and dive in to the Bible.  It came to me yesterday when I was thinking about what book to read, making good use of my down time after my oral surgery. (I’m recovering quickly, thanks for asking.) So how will this be measured?

1. Quality over Quantity. I don’t want to rush through, but rather dive in and explore.
2. Study my NIV Study Bible from page 1,459 (New Testament Title Page) to page 1,991 (Last verse of the Bible Revelation 22.21 “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.”)
3. Doing the math: 1,991 – 1,459 = 532 pages.
4. Study a minimum of about 10 pages per week – Having 50 weeks left of the year. This is covering all content that resides on those pages.
5. Highlight anything interesting
6. Write down what you want to remember.
7. Practically speaking I’ll… Study a minimum of 10 pages per week, highlighting anything interesting, writing down what I want to remember, and do a quick summary over each page or session.
8. Extras: I’ll use The Word of Promise audio Bible as I go to help retain what I’m reading, as well as Glo Digital Bible, and The Bible Knowledge Commentary (all of which I received for Christmas.)

I’ll probably end up tweeting and blogging about what I experience and my progress, but I’m not binding myself to that. Other less tangible goals are helping my wife with her new years resolution, (she hasn’t really told anyone about it yet), going to the gym consistently (so far 3x a week), and learning to live more loving, sacrificially, and generously.

Those desires may take shape into measurable goals, but i’m taking one step at a time to not overwhelm myself. Oh, and as a side note, I’ve started reading again and absolutely love it.