ROBERT CLEMENTS
It was the night before the New Year!
The old man sighed as he watched his family sit together that night. He knew they would be leaving soon for the New Year dance, and he had also got his best suit pressed by the maid, so he would look good as the New Year came in. His wife sat by his side and smiled at him, she gave him a piece of paper and a pen. He watched as the others wrote on their own pieces of paper.
“Dad!” said his elder son, “you aren’t writing anything?”
“Yes grandpa,” said his eldest grandson, “you’re supposed to write New Year resolutions on your paper. See what I wrote grandpa..”
“Sssshhh son,” said his mother, “you’ve got to read it tomorrow after the New Year has come in.”
The old man sighed as he looked at his family.
“Remember dad you were the one who taught us this habit?”
“Yes,” sighed the old man.
“I remember one night I wrote so many resolutions I never slept that night,” said his younger son, “and then next morning I couldn’t find the paper..”
“That’s because I took the paper out of your hand and hid it,” said his mother.
“Otherwise you would never have gone to sleep with so many resolutions to write!” smiled the old man, his father as he remembered that night.
“And what were those resolutions?” asked a curious granddaughter, “and grandpa did he keep those resolutions?”
“Yes,” said her grandfather, “he did, for exactly one day, and by the end of the day, he had already broken two!”
They all laughed and continued with their writing. The old man, held his blank paper in his hand and looked at them. He cleared his throat once, but did not say anything.
“Dad!” said his elder son, “is there anything bothering you? You aren’t writing?”
“Are you feeling unwell?” his wife of many years asked, looking with concern at his blank sheet.
“I’m okay,” he smiled at her, but she was a little unsure, as she looked his paper. Then suddenly he wrote something, folded it in two and put it in his pocket.
“I’m going to change,” said the grandfather as he walked out of the room. He watched as they all looked at the pocket where he had kept his little piece of paper.
He smiled as his wife followed him into the bedroom after some time. He left his shirt on a chair and walked into the bathroom to have a bath.
There was a smile on his face as he heard his wife tiptoe to the chair, he listened as she took the paper from his shirt pocket and rushed back to where the others were waiting:
“What did dad write?” asked the elder son, with mounting curiosity. They all watched as their mother opened the paper:
“My new year resolution,” she read, “is to allow God to reign in my life through the whole year. I resolve to do, what He wills me to do, everyday..!”
There was a smile on the old man’s face as his family, opened their New Year resolutions the next day. “Isn’t it strange,” he said with a smile, “that we’ve all written the same thing..!”
