Why Wait for a New Year?

I can't help but wonder why we make New Year's Resolutions?  No really, why do we?  I don't mean that as in, "Why bother, we won't keep them anyway," but rather, where did that tradition come from?

Wikipedia has a little information on the origins of this practice here.  Check it out if you are interested.

 

So again, why do we really do them?  I've always been reluctant to make a resolution at the New Year just because I know that there is a very slim chance that I will keep that resolution.  If I'm not totally committed to the cause, it's not going to happen.  Also though, why should we wait for the New Year?

Isn't every day a new day that we could resolve to better than the last?  Shouldn't we wake up every morning and commit ourselves to being a better person than we were the day before?  Shouldn't we go to bed each night and remind ourselves of where we fell short during the day and what we would like to do better tomorrow?

As a Catholic, I believe in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In this Sacrament we go to the priest and confess our sins, who in turn gives us advice, prays with us, absolves us of our sins, and gives us a penance to perform.  We confess, as our Penitential Rite says, all the ways "that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do."  For non-Catholics this practice doesn't make much sense.  I know, I was there once too.  But having experienced the Sacrament and the beautiful grace that comes from it, I know that I couldn't live without it.  When it has been too long since my last confession, like now, I get antsy, anxious, and just plain angry.  I need to be in that confessional telling a neutral party all of the ways I have failed God.  I need to hear those words, "God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  This doesn't mean that Catholics aren't "allowed" or able to go straight to God, we can of course, but I can't tell you the peace that comes from hearing a priest remind you that you are forgiven.  When I pray at night and confess to God that I have failed in a million ways that day, I don't hear a voice from 3 feet away tell me, "Tracie, I forgive you."  But when I sit in that little room and speak through the curtain or face to face with my priest, I DO hear him say it, and it lifts 10 tons of weight off of my weary soul. 

So why should we bother to wait until the New Year to make changes, why should I bother?  Every day is new.  Every day is a new opportunity to be a better wife, mother, human being, and child of God.  Every moment is a new chance to ask for forgiveness of Our Lord and of those who have been hurt by our failed attempts to be humans.  Living out our vocation is hard work, and we are all going to stumble and fall, sometimes daily.  As Thomas Wayne said to Bruce in the movie Batman Begins, "Why do we fall, Bruce?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up again."  God knows we all fall, but he is always there to help us back up and he doesn't give up on us.  Let's not give up on ourselves.