New Year's doesn't feel new anymore!!

I woke up yesterday and it was a new year. 2016 instead of 2015. Yet....

I was still exhausted as though I'd stayed up until 1 in the morning and I'm not 18 anymore.

My back still aches because I abused it too much when I was in my teen years.

I still can't do 30 push ups in a row.

My daughters are only 1 day older.

My wife is the same age she was yesterday.

I'm a whole day older than I was yesterday!

My church is still preparing for a great year of seeing God work through hard times.

I still wish I didn't have a temper problem at times.

I am still trying to learn German and feeling like I'm at the base of the mountain trying to get up....but the mountain path is an escalator that only goes down!

I still don't consistently read in my Bible like I want to.

So, what's so new about this year?? What make it special to hit a new year???

I still have a wife and two daughters.

I still have vehicles that work.

I still have a church family that I call my "family" and who I love very much.

I have been learning about the presence of God and I feel at times grateful and at times overwhelmed....and the best times I feel both grateful and overwhelmed!

I still have a job that God chooses to use to provide for the needs of my family.

My sore back is still not debilitating so I can function with my families.


So, its another year! I guess I realized this morning that:

I can choose to realize how little things are changing and be disappointed, or I can look at how little things are changing and be grateful.

I can see what I'm still not doing right and be frustrated, or I can see what I'm still not doing right and steel myself to continue the fight to allow God to work in me to make me more than I am naturally in myself!

I can see hardship coming and determine to fight it or I can see hardship and be excited to see what God is going to do.

I realize that hardship that I can't currently see is coming and be depressed, or I can continue to lean on God so that when those times do come I'll already be spiritually, mentally, emotionally, etc. prepared to faces those hardships.

Happy New Year everyone. God is good and, thankfully, His goodness has nothing to do with our faith in Him, our attitude to our circumstances, or even the outcomes that we will face this year.



To God be the glory!!