Secrets of Self-Improvement

At the beginning of every calendar year, many people go through the ritual of a "New Year's Resolution" - a resolution that sometimes barely survives New Year's Day.

Why do these resolutions so often fail? Usually because they attempt to fix only one thing in life and to do it by strength of will alone.

(I don't want to even begin to tell you how often I have failed.)

In today's first reading (2 Peter 1:2-7), St. Peter gives us secrets for successful self-improvement.

The first secret is that full self-improvement cannot be done by oneself: it is ultimately the work of grace:

May grace and peace be yours in abundance
through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has bestowed on us
everything that makes for life and devotion,
through the knowledge of him
who called us by his own glory and power.

Through these, he has bestowed on us
the precious and very great promises,
so that through them
you may come to share in the divine nature...

The second secret is to avoid being dragged down by the desires that are inflamed by this world.

...you may come to share in the divine nature,
after escaping from the corruption that is in the world
because of evil desire.

And the third secret is that improvement is most successful when it is comprehensive: advancing on a number of fronts all at once - not just fixing one thing in our lives, but growing in Christ so that all things in our lives progress together.

For this very reason,
make every effort to supplement
your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge,
knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance,
endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection,
mutual affection with love.