Happy New Year!
Although a new year is often a continuation of our plans from the previous year, it’s also a good time to focus on the positive changes we want to make in our lives.
As usual, on January 1st I started to write my goals for the year, and they were pretty standard:
- Read the bible daily.
- Focus on the positives each day.
- Spend more quality time with loved ones.
- Run X amount of miles every month… and so on.
Although there is nothing wrong with these goals, I also want to work on not taking things for granted. I want to stop focusing on “the next best thing” as I have done in the past with countdowns to things like my kid’s next big event, spring break, summer break, vacation, and the next annual event or concert. This year I am not going to do a single countdown! (That doesn’t mean I won’t look forward to these things, just that I won’t miss what is right in front of me while waiting for the next occasion).
Looking back on last year, I had chosen a “word of the year” and it didn’t, in any way, go in the direction I had imagined. However, I find comfort in the verse: “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV).
Although my “word of the year” didn’t highlight my year in the way I’d envisioned it would last year, after writing my goals for this year on New Years Day, I chose my word for the year as well as a song and bible verse. I will share them with you in hopes that you are encouraged, if you have not already done so, to choose a word or theme, song, and bible verse for the year as well.
2024:
- Word: Rebuilding
- Song: Keep me in the moment (Jeremy Camp)
- Bible verse: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34 NIV).
My challenge to you, right now, is to take out a piece of paper and do the same (or you can even find a blank space in your book All in For Him to write them :)!). I also suggest writing your word and bible verse in places you will see them daily (and don’t forget to listen to your song each day).
To close, I want to pray over you in this new year:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for bringing another year to an end and for all the blessings you provided in 2023. I pray you wrap your arms around us when we face challenges this year and give us the strength to rebuild in the moments and aftermath of those challenges. I pray 2024 brings peace, comfort, joy, and blessings in the lives of those reading this prayer. In Jesus name, Amen.
Scriptures marked (NIV) taken from the Holy Bible, New International
Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used
by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.
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in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®
