New Year New Beginnings

Yesterday I finished my last journal entry of 2017. With the busyness of life it can be hard to keep up with journaling about life’s events. In the past I haven’t done very well with regularly writing, but from the middle of 2016 to now my journal is filled with life’s stories. It’s filled with heartache, joy, trials, lessons, and hope. Reflecting back on this past year, it has been one of the hardest and most eventful. From beginning the year trying to work on our marriage, to halfway through, my husband’s confession to an affair, then moving to a new town away from family and friends. Even through the trials, pain of betrayal, and new move, I have experienced the deepest personal growth this year as well as deepened intimacy with God.

However I am thankful for seasons of change. There are lessons I have to remember from this past year, but with a new calendar year I am ready to move forward.

During one of the nights of worship at our church this past fall, a total stranger came up to us and said she felt God wanted us to know He is making all things new. My husband and I looked at each other and got emotional because that had been the verse God laid on our hearts before we moved here. I’m still hanging on to that verse for 2018.

Yesterday at church the congregation made this declaration below.

2018 Declaration

The old is gone. The new has come!
My sin, my shame, the mistakes of 2017 are buried…for good!

Out of the ashes, God is bringing beauty!
He is making ALL things new!
I am a work in progress – He’s not finished yet!

In 2018, I will trust in the Lord with all my heart, and lean not on my own understanding.
I will acknowledge Him in ALL my ways and He will direct my path!

Forgetting what is behind, I focus my eyes on the prize before me! That prize is Jesus!
He is enough! He is ALL I need!
With Christ before me, I can stand firmly and
declare in complete confidence that in 2018:

THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!

These words from yesterday just reaffirmed my Hope in God and His work in us and our marriage. I look forward to what is to come!

I don’t know what season of life you find yourself in, but I pray with this new year there will be new beginnings for you as well. In your personal life, marriage, spiritual growth, heart and healing.