With the coming of the New Year, people around the Brookhavenand Lincoln County areas are preparing to make their New Year’sresolutions, most of which reflect commitments to family, faith andfitness.

Most family resolutions deal with the young, very young andunborn.

“My biggest resolution at this point is to survive my children,”said Susan Dicket as she cradled her 1-month-old baby. When askedif surviving her children seemed to be a difficult task, Dicketresponded, “Absolutely. I have to go back to work in a month and ahalf!”

“It all revolves around the baby,” said Pam Wallace as shepatted her belly. “My husband and I are going to try to be betterparents, set better examples and let our religion show through toour children.”

Tim Abbot of Paul Barnett Nissan had no resolutions of his ownto share, but Rachel, his 1-year-old daughter, has a goal for2008.

“She’s going to try to talk fluently by the end of this year,”Abbot said with Rachel on his knee. “She can say lots of words,like ‘daddy,’ but this year we’re going to put it alltogether.”

Marti Dickey has no newborns to raise; her raising activitiesare almost complete, as he daughter, Amanda Beiser, is 19 yearsold. However, Dickey and her daughter stay close and work toimprove their lives by participating in the same New Year’sresolution every year.

“Every year, my daughter and I make lists of things to leave inthe past,” Dickey said. “And then we make lists of things that wewant to accomplish in the new year. We write all this down in ourjournals so we can always check and make sure we are doing theright things.”

Area residents are planning to take great care of their childrenin 2008, but the other end of the family spectrum will not beforgotten.

“I’m going to visit my mother more,” said Yvonne Dunn. “She’solder, and I don’t see her enough.”

Dunn said she usually does not participate in the New Year’sresolution rituals, but this is one she “really wants to keep.

“And shame on me if I don’t!” Dunn said.

While many people are making commitments to bring their familiescloser together, others are planning on taking care of themselvesby moving closer to God.

“I want to make a difference in more people’s lives,” said JohnBoyd, a preacher at Oak Grove Pentecostal Church in Jayess.”Whether it be by preaching the word or just showing more kindnessto my fellow men.”

Church attendance is not a problem for Boyd, it is hisoccupation. Others, however, are planning on making more time toattend Sunday services.

“I’m gonna go to church more,” said Sandra Clark. “I work allthe time, and I usually don’t get to go enough. I want to get backin church and take my children with me, so I can better teach themright and wrong.”

Aside from getting in shape with the Almighty, Brookhaven andLincoln County residents have also resolved to get in shapethemselves.

“I’m going to try to drink more red wine this year,” said DonQuinn, a retiree. “So that I can purge my arterial system of anychances of blockage. I’m going to live healthier so I can lookforward to making another resolution next year.”

Not everyone takes it as seriously as Quinn.

“I guess I’ll use the same resolution this year as I had lastyear,” said Dennis Wallace, the husband on Pam Wallace. “I don’tknow if I actually lost any weight, but I didn’t gain any, either.That’s gotta be a plus.”

Resolving to drink more red wine seems easy enough; trying tolose weight and get in shape may be more difficult. Bothresolutions, however, pale in comparison to the difficulty of oneage-old promise: quitting smoking.

“I’m gonna try to quit smoking, but I don’t think it’s gonnahappen,” said Rachel Meche. “I’ve tried everything: the patch, thegum, hypnosis … I’ve heard people say that you just throw ’emdown, but that didn’t work for me.”

Meche said she has no specific plans of how to quit smoking in2008, but is going to try again, nonetheless. She admitted that hertask would be very difficult as long as she remained in thestress-filled world of the restaurant business.

“My job is one of the few places that still allows smoking,”Meche said of her place of employment, Hudgey’s Family Restaurant.”The owner of the place just quit smoking himself about two monthsago. Even though I’m one of the main smokers, I hope he goes aheadand makes the whole place non-smoking.”

Of course, not everyone participates in making New Year’sresolutions. Several people, when asked, said they “haven’t eventhought about it.”

While his daughter will try to accomplish the power of speech in2008, Abbot has no resolutions for himself.

“I never make resolutions,” he said. “I try to do everythingright the first time.”

When approached for their 2008 commitments, an elderly coupledeclined to share their resolves because they “don’t have too manyvices to give up, anyway.”

One man frankly said he doesn’t believe in resolving for the newyear.

“I just try to live one day at a time,” he said.

Another woman, when asked her New Year’s resolution, said shehad no idea. When told she still had one more day to think of one,she asked, “Is that how many days we have left in this year?”