It would be nice to have a better year than last year.

I would really like to be happier, healthier, and more financially fit.

It would be awesome to have more family time and to enjoy my life more than I did in 2012.

It would be really nice to please God and reach all of my personal and professional goals.

Unfortunately, most of those things won’t happen this year if they’re only nice wishes. If there is any hope of my 2013 dreams coming true it will be when my nice wishes become absolute necessities. I can keep on living without nice, but I won’t last long without necessary.

When vanity urges us to drop a few pounds it would be nice to lose weight. However when our doctor says, “Change your health and exercise patterns of you’ll die,” fitness becomes a necessity.

When the thought of more family time sounds “nice” it’s not likely that we’ll pay the price to change our family dynamics. However when we learn that we might lose our family if we don’t change, our family focus assumes a drastically greater urgency.

It seems that there are three options where our New Year resolutions are concerned:

1. Do nothing and continue living the status quo
2. Wait for bad news to compel us to change
3. Cast a glorious vision of what life could be like, and then let that vision drive our resolve and direct our calendars in 2013

Let’s opt for the latter. Let’s be visionary men and women fueled by God-honoring dreams.

“…One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)