Christmas Cards

Getting Christmas Cards is one of my most favorite things in December.  Actually, one of my most favorite things all year!  I love seeing your smiling faces, how much the babies (and kids!) have grown, hearing updates on your people.  It brings me so much JOY.  And if you send me your new address before I mail one to your old address and get it returned?  You've made my day.

We'll be sending a New Year's card this year - since we had a chance to take an updated family pic at Christmas.  I just ordered them and will hopefully get them out to you soon!  Our crew hadn't all been together in almost a year and a half and we've changed a bit.  Added two babies, a new fiance' and there's another baby on the way!  And I feel like the Coach and I have aged even more than 17 months worth.  

As beautiful as you all are and as lovely as your Christmas cards are and as much happiness as they bring me...  I am tempted... I think every year... to write a REAL Christmas letter.  With all of the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I won't do it, of course, but it's always so tempting.

You want to know how our year REALLY went?  No, you don't.  Ha!

But just in case you worry that your life is a wreck and everyone else has it together, let me remind you that I'm your girl.  Always lowering the bar so that you can feel like you do, in fact, have it all together.  If you want to hear details, that will have to happen over a cup of coffee.  Because as much as I'd love to just hang all of our dirty laundry out to dry on the internets, that doesn't seem appropriate.  For today, at least.  

Thankfully, Jesus's sacrifice, God's mercies (new every morning) and the Lord's goodness aren't dependent on me having it all together.  In fact, it's quite the opposite.  The greater my need, the greater His grace.  Wow.  That truly astounds me.  I have a hard time loving people who don't do what I'd like or make me feel better about myself.  But Christ died for us WHEN WE WERE YET SINNERS.  We hated Him and He willingly gave His life for us. 

So I don't have to get it all together this year, or any year.  My card won't be a diatribe on all of the hard things this year held... although I know that would be super entertaining for all of us.  I'll send the pretty picture with the best looking kids and sweetest babies you've ever seen.  And my extra wrinkles, too.  And take another opportunity to be thankful that God promises to bring good from it all.  Every bit of it.  Even the hard.  No... I think especially the hard.  

Happy New Year!

New Year's for the rest of us...

If you're starting this New Year discouraged, I'm here to say you aren't alone.

If last year wasn't your favorite, wasn't your best, or is a year you never want to see again?  I'm with you.

If you can't imagine setting goals for another year after this last one pulled the rug out from under you?  That's OK.  It really is.

I've never faced a New Year with less enthusiasm.  Beginning a new year lends itself to looking back over the past year and it's definitely been a hard thing for me to do. The Coach and I are big goal setters.  We have always wanted to learn and grow and be challenged (hence the 8 kids - ha!). But last year challenged us in new and unusual (and painful) ways, so I'm not about to ask for THAT, again.  How about we all just pray for a year of coasting, maintaining and REST?  How about we try not having any goals at all?  I kid.  Sort of.

I told someone last week that I wasn't super excited about a new year after what last year held for us... not a year I want to see again.  He said, I feel like your family has had more than your share of those years, haven't you?  Hmmmm.  It does seem that way.  

But no matter what this year holds (good or bad - and it will be a combination of the two), we still know some things to be true.  

God is good.  He is always good.  Not everything that happens to us IS good.  For SURE.  But God is.  I can rest on that truth this year.

God has good plans for my life.  He promises to finish the work He has begun in me.  It's a promise.  He won't leave me alone, where I am, or without hope.  Ever.

God has good plans for the people I love.  I may not always see it.  Or believe it.  But it's true.  He LOVES them so much more than I ever could.  He is good, He has good plans for their lives, and He promises to complete His work in their lives and mine.

In the meantime, I may struggle to find my Anchor some days.  Or every day.  I may forget that it's for my good and HIS glory.  But it's still true.

If you've forgotten all of this at the beginning of this New Year, as I seem to have?  There is space for that, too.  I think it's OK to begin this year slowly with a bit of hesitation.  I think it's OK to not set any big goals or feel the need to grow or change this year.  As long as we keep moving forward.  And trust God for the rest of it.