Brand New!

 What I love about a new year is that we get to start over -- a brand new calendar with fresh new dates and nothing filling in the days.  This is the calendar I picked this year.  I love big, open spaces to write in.  How quickly that open space changes.  I don't know about you, but when I get my new calendar I immediately write in all of the family birthdays, anniversaries,  due dates, and lastly, add in the dangling January appointments scribbled on the bottom of the December page.  For one small moment though, the new year is fresh, clean, open!  It's fun to think about it for that small moment in time.  (Let's pause and think about it.)  How swiftly the new year marches in with its schedules, appointments, special dates and events.  

Do you ever take a little extra time to look at your old calendar as you add the birthdays and anniversaries onto your new one and notice what a full year it was?  It is quite fascinating to me.  My mother-in-law had a large wall calendar that she received yearly from a livestock newspaper.  It had big boxes for writing in, and she always kept a mini-diary on it.  I loved seeing her teacher-like penmanship written in each square with all the activities of the ranch and family life inked in.

I'm not a New Year Resolution Person.  Are you?  I like to think of a few things that I want to do and hope to do in the new year and pencil them into my journal, but I know that sometimes my best laid plans do not always materialize for one reason or another.  I like to remain open to things that God might put in my path, things that I may not have had on my radar screen for the coming year at all.  That's not to say I don't plan, but I know that My Plans are not always God's Plans.

Another thing that I have been thinking about in this new year is the fact that God is in control.  I have had to remind myself of this fact a lot lately.  There are so many, many things that trouble my heart, especially when I watch the news or read the headlines.   Sometimes I just want to cry for humanity.  The other day I was typing an email to a friend, and I believe God inspired the ending with the lines from the carol, O Holy Night. 

 "Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever!  

His power and glory ever more proclaim!

His power and glory ever more proclaim!"   

Christ is the Lord, I will trust Him.  I will put my hand in His.  I won't worry, but believe.  I will wait to see His power and glory happening, and then I will proclaim it.  

 Dear Friends, I wish you all the best in this new year, 2015.  May God speak to your heart and may you have ears to hear His whisper.  May He show you big, beautiful things, and give you keen interest in the humble little things too.  In the troubling things, I hope you'll be able to trust.  Above all, may you know His love, forgiveness, peace, and hope.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  ~Romans 15:13