A year has now past since I started this blogging thing. This time last year, I posted my first blog, “A New Thing”. As I look back over the year and my posts, I see that there was a lot of living, loving, laughing and, frankly, just “lasting” during 2016. God called me to be more transparent in my writing. I tried. Let’s just say I am a work in progress.

In January of 2016, my dad died after a 27-year battle with Parkinson’s. In January, my son, Taylor, became engaged to his sweetheart Reid to be married in October, 2016. Before January was over, the stage for the whole year was already set. It was going to be a very sad year. It was going to be a very happy year. And now looking back, it was both.

This past year, I received some relief from my nerve pain illness when overnight the neck pain that had been there for five years vanished. Soon after, it heightened in a new spot and persists still today. I guess God’s answer to that prayer is either “No” or “Wait”. In the meantime, I know he is working a plan in my life. Maybe this is my thorn, like Paul had, to keep me humble.

God brought a special young lady to help with our Grace In The Wilderness Teen Ministry, Kayla Rampey. He is quickly expanding that ministry now with the addition of a weekly blog, monthly newsletters and a second teen conference coming up in January. She is doing a fantastic job. We had been praying for new life for our teen ministry, and, out of the blue, Kayla wrote me and volunteered to help us. Go God!

This year I started a new support group for moms of children with Attachment Disorders. I have received the biggest blessing of all from these moms.

Only God knows what will happen this year, and how quickly life can change. I do not know what the future holds, but I know that God holds the future. I predict that, while this new year will be filled with challenges, it will be filled with new opportunities too.

Just today, God presented me with a new opportunity for ministry. Looks like the stage is already being set. It is going to be a great year!

“Each New Year, we have before us a brand new book containing 365 blank pages. Let us fill them with all the forgotten things from last year—the words we forgot to say, the love we forgot to show, and the charity we forgot to offer.” —Peggy Toney Horton

Let’s not look back on the pages turned in disappointment, but ahead to the promises of God left to unfold in the new chapter of our lives called 2017. Let’s place our hope, not in the new year, but in the One who makes all things new.

Dear Lord: Thank You for another new year of life, love, laughter and lasting with Your help. Please equip us for the challenges and the opportunities that this new year will hold. Please guide our steps and guard our hearts, and walk with us through every day of the new year.  Amen

You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance. Psalm 65:11

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

What will your new year hold? Is there something left undone from last year that you need to do? Is God calling you to a new opportunity? If not now, when? Are you facing challenges this year that we can join you in praying about? Please share with us.

Thank you for reading and sharing my blogpost. May God bless you and your family in 2017.