F. G by F. G. | AdventAI

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

F. G

By F. G.

Resolutions

RESOLUTIONS are necessary for the beginning and completion of every successful undertaking. It is quite impossible for us to perform any new action or repeat any old action in which the will is involved unless we picture ourselves performing this action before we undertake it. The Saviour clearly teaches the importance of well-laid plans and resolutions in his inquiry, “Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” and the further inquiry of, “What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?” We read of Bible characters, such as Daniel and Paul, who “purposed,” “determined,” that they would do or would not do certain things. While it is true that we have the book of Acts, but do not have a book of resolutions, yet back of the acts expressed must lie the resolutions, which may be unexpressed.

Too many teachers enter upon their work and continue through the year without having formed clear and definite plans concerning it. Their resolutions are indefinite. Their purposes are not fixed, and as a consequence their work is a failure. This should not be true upon of Christian teachers. Successful men and women in all lines of undertaking are those who carefully consider the conditions surrounding the undertaking upon which they are entering, who recognize their own weaknesses, and form those resolutions which will lead them to profit by their past failures.

The time in which to form our resolutions for any undertaking is at the beginning. Paul went from Athens to Corinth. His experience at Athens in some respects had not been a most successful one. He had gone to this great seat of learning, met the wise men, and confounded them in their discussions, quoting to them, in so doing, from their own poets, and yet no remarkable work followed his effort. When he went to Corinth, he says that he determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Here, it would seem that he formed a resolution to make strong in his work the point which perhaps had been somewhat weak. There is a lesson in this for every teacher at the beginning of his year's work. Those points in his work wherein weakness has been manifested are to be made strong.

For us to see our weaknesses requires the utmost honesty and candor on our part. It is so easy for us to excuse our mistakes and to train ourselves into those habits of thinking, wherein it is practically impossible for us to discover errors on our part. To be successful Christian teachers we must be more anxious to see our own mistakes than those of any one else, and to this end we must constantly study ourselves.

Resolutions are not only necessary at the beginning of the work, but we need constantly to reinforce them each day. Paul was not only converted at the beginning of his ministry, but he “died daily” throughout it. He constantly recognized the necessity of reconsidering his purposes and resolutions, and discovering whether he was properly relating himself to them. Careful and well-formed resolutions which are daily reinforced by thought and prayer are of inestimable value to every teacher who would make a success of his work.