As I sit writing this column, the year 2012 is soon to be at an end. The past 365 days really seemed to have flown by.

This year – 2013 – is knocking at the door with all of its opportunities and the offering of a clean slate. If 2012 was not a great year for you, the time to start over began yesterday morning as the clock struck midnight.

Many feel surviving the past year was a great accomplishment, but most have done more than survive. We lived another year of life and what a gift that was, all 365 days of it.

A day of life should be looked upon as a gift. We are not guaranteed tomorrow and today could be all we have. Today was the last day of life for some and the first day of life for newborns.

One might think that not knowing would make it hard to live life, never knowing when the next breath we take could be our last.

But to those of us who know from where our salvation comes realize that the last breath taken here is the first breath with the Lord.

This assurance makes it much easier to live our life knowing this is not all there is to come.

As we opened up this gift a few hours ago, making resolutions to lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more and so forth will be on the minds of many.

While these are all great intentions, and I use “intentions” loosely, perhaps we could all use the New Year to make life better for another person. Using the adage of “giving is better than receiving,” we could lend a hand to someone without being asked, offer a kind word to someone who is having a bad day, give of our time to others, even when we would much rather be doing something else.

Each day that we live in 2013 gives us another day to be a better person, to love one another, to make another’s burden lighter and to enjoy the many blessings that God has given to us. Even on what we count as bad, we are living a life so much better than most others on this planet. Now writing this was the easy part. Going forth and doing so gets more difficult.

But as the apostle Paul shared to the church at Phillipi:

“I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

Randy Garrison is the president and publisher of the Hartselle Enquirer.