This past year has been full of adventures for our family. It is such a blessing to look back and see what the Lord has done in just one year. I love the reflection that happens on December 31st. I love how the end of one year and the beginning of another year leads people to reflect on what has happened and set goals for the next year to come. It's as if the whole world gets a little end-of-the-year progress report. We look over the high points and the low points. We see the things we achieved and the things we fell short on. Different feelings stir up in each person as thoughts of the previous year are reviewed. But in the end, there's a hope for a fresh start. The slate is cleaned. In an instant, we are renewed and looking eagerly ahead. For me, this is a reminder of what the Lord did in my own life when I made the decision to place my trust in Him.

Therefore, if anyone is in Chrst, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.   

2 Corinthians 5:17

I don't know where you are in your life. I don't know what you place your hope in. All I know for certain is what the Lord did in my own life. Whatever depth of sin you have in your life, His grace is sufficient. "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor power, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Chrst Jsus our Lord" (Rom. 8:38-39).

With a new year, and with every new day He gives us, let us "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may find mercy and grace in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

He has a plan for your life, a plan He wrote down long before he created you. To quote one of my favorite women, Corrie ten Boom, "Every experience God gives us, every person He puts into our lives, is the perfect preparation for a future only He can see." Trust in Him. In Him, we are made new. His mercies are new every morning, not just once a year.