2015 Manifesto! New Year’s day is a fantastic time to begin again. Start with some new thoughts and find hope in God’s promises. Hold your chin up and march forward. Today is a new day. Yesterday is behind you. In Christ, you are a new creation. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:11) God has your whole life in His hands. Trust.
January, a time of patient expectancy. The Holidays are over and we enter a new year, a time to look toward the future and hope for the coming year. In the newness of January I pray silently for each of my friends and loved ones, for health, peace, joy, and prosperity in the coming months. I know all too well that there are years I wish I could forget due to tragedy, loss, distress and the depression that looms after the loss of a loved one.
I begin again to savor moments spent with special people, health, my own personal sense of peace and the joy of a happy marriage. The start of each New Year is filled with promise, and hope helps me to hold dear to my dreams, as while I build them, they often seem distant and unobtainable.
I see promise in the plans and dreams of my adult children and take note that our daughter now embraces the beginning of a new year much like I do. We are list makers and goal setters. We both need to see our plans in writing in order for them to feel tangible. While the weather is frigid, I find myself buying in bulk so I don’t have to go out but can instead, stay indoors and dream, write, plan, and create. Something about January entices me to make hearty dinners for my family and they look forward to a hot dinner awaiting them after work or school.
By the end of January I will begin thinking about planting indoor bulbs like tulips and hyacinths, as when they pop their heads up from the soil in mid February, the emerging plants give me hope of Spring!
January is a time for organizing, a time to begin anew, to try new things and work toward articulating those things we want to change, improve upon, start over, or begin. A new year pushes us forward not allowing us to get stuck in the past, as time waits for no man, and we are then propelled to move with it.
As Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, the Church now begins the liturgical countdown toward His death and resurrection on Easter Sunday, each moment in time yet connected to another. This year I will again watch “The Passion of Christ” so I don’t forget the price that He paid. For some, this may sound gruesome, but my spirit needs reminders that as a human being, I am very blessed. I need reminders that Christ had the utmost humility, and I should desire humility for myself. The constant reminder of the life and death of Christ brings me hope that some day there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more pain, as our family suffered many losses during this 7 year season.
I refrain from setting resolutions, but rather, set workable goals. I will plug away at accomplishing my goals, realizing that those who succeed are those who have acquired the disciplines of perseverance, temperance, and consistency!
May this New Year find you filled with hope and patient expectancy. May you and your friends and loved ones find in 2014, health, peace, joy, and prosperity, and may you savor moments spent with special people. May you find promise in and hold onto your dreams and may January find you with quiet moments by which you may articulate those things you wish to change, get better at, start over, or begin.
Most of all, may your spirit be filled with HOPE.