“I’m not making any plans for 2021 - I want to see what I’m agreeing to first!”

Have you noticed there isn’t much goal-setting and resolution-making going on right now? What a strange year this has been! Many of us are looking at 2021 a little hesitant, not sure of what awaits us. Either that or we are frantically rushing forward to leave 2020 behind!

“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:27-31

Each time we have moved to a new place, there have been little brown sparrows. I’ve learned to look for them; sitting on the wire at one apartment, resting in the trees at another house, and now they perch all along our fence. They show up on their own, happily chirping without a care in the world. They are a constant reminder to me of how the Lord has cared for me and my family, regardless of what goes on around us!

I believe 2020 has been a good year, because the Lord ordained it. He saw fit to bring each day and its dealings. It has been a hard year, no doubt about that. But He has exposed darkness, He has shone light in even the corner shadows where evil has lurked unnoticed. He has shuffled our lives so that we - if we are paying attention - can see yet again how life is not in our control. He has been re-prioritizing many things for many people. Has it come without pain? Some of it, but not all of it. Yet He knows what He’s doing and He has cared for us.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope you leave 2020 energized. Going forward, we have such opportunity to share the hope of the Gospel to a dying world! We are not able to go on in life just coasting along; we either believe in the Lord or we don’t. We will either stand for His truth or we won’t. It’s hard, but it’s simple.

These are good days, friends. These are days we get to show our children how to live for Christ. These are days we get to be even more purposeful in teaching them and training them in the way God lays out for us. Now is the time to be intentional with our marriages, to put our minds to work in our households, to know that what we are doing as wives and mothers is a holy calling.

This next year is unknown, just like any other year. It will likely be hard and refining. But praise God for the refinement, that we would know Him more and be better able to bring Him glory!

Keep your chin up, dear friends, as we go into this new year. We are not without hope! Be refreshed, knowing that the Lord has already numbered your days and He will not leave you for any one of them. He is always present; a very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1) and always near you in pleasant times too.

Run the race the Lord has called you to. Spend your days immersed in His Word and in prayer, looking for ways to serve and bless others. We have good works ahead of us for His glory, let’s walk in them. A life spent wholly for the Lord is certainly not a life wasted!

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10

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“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12-14

Happy New Year!

- Amy