40 Days and 40 Nights - A Challenge for the New Year

I pledge... I COVENANT to practice faith, hope and charity by doing these things.

First, faith... I will pray on my knees every night for the next 40 nights - starting TONIGHT. I will pray for guidance, inspiration, peace. I will pray for the leaders of our country. I will pray for their safety and that they will receive wisdom. I will reestablish my relationship with God.

Secondly, hope. Hope comes from truth. One cannot have hope based on lies. If you go to the doctor, and you are in the early stages of cancer, but he tells you that you just have the sniffles, that is false hope. It will not help you. In fact, it will kill you. We have to have honesty to have real hope. Thus, I will stop all lies for the next 40 days, and this includes lying to myself. I will establish a pattern of honesty, and it will become habitual. I will question everything with boldness. I will perform my own research and then pray for confirmation on the things I have learned. I will find out what is true in my life.

And thirdly, I will have charity. Charity begins at home. I will do something kind for every member of my family at least once a week. I also pledge to take notice of how blessed I really am. I live in the greatest country the world has ever known where even the least prosperous among us are among the wealthiest people in the world. I will be grateful.