Happy New Year! Can I Have This Dance?
Yay! The last day of 2023 was numbered 12-31-23. Aw! 123-123! That sounds like a waltz to me — dancing right on into 2024! And, if we choose God as our dance partner on this 1st day of January through to December 31st, 2024, we’ll be conquering throughout this new year!
An entire year of awesomeness awaits us. The squares on our 2024 calendars are blank, but very soon those squares will be filled with activities, events, ceremonies, birthdays, anniversaries and exciting opportunities and adventures for a new year of great conquests and victories.
“In the beginning…..YES — we are at the beginning of 2024. We know several “in the beginnings”. “In the beginning – God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1)
Here we are “in the beginning” of this “brand spanking” new year. Okay. Let’s stop right there. What does “brand-spanking new” mean anyway? Inquiring mind that I have — I had to look it up. It could have come by way of the doctors who traditionally spanked babies immediately after delivery to start them crying and breathing “in their beginning” of life outside the womb.
This blog is dedicated to the brand spanking new year that we hope will be indelibly imprinted with “all things brand new with brand new thinking and living”. We made it through 2023 and we are still here to tell the story of the survival of the fittest.
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to get a glimpse into what God has in mind for us in this new year? I’m one of those people who prays for a “word of the year”. It’s a single word or phrase that Holy Spirit brings to our minds while we’re praying or reading Scriptures.
It’s a word that hints at God’s plans and His desires for us in the coming year. Those words are just small glimpses, a splash of color, so to speak, for that blank canvas of the new year.
Carl and I have selected “MORE” as our word for 2024. Not more of things and places to go and things to do that are self-centered. But MORE in what God calls us to do for Him, for others in encouragement, support and standing with them for their MORE.
I’m sensing an even more intimate and tight relationship with my Savior. You know – the MORE we spend time with Him, we take on His characteristics and His love for humanity. That’s what I pray for this year – becoming MORE like Him, the Son, every day.
In God’s “in the beginning”, He started creating the world and looked over all He had made, and He saw it was very good!” (Genesis 1:31).
I know that “in the beginning” of this year, I want to spend time dancing with my Lord and follow His lead. The atmosphere I create, the things I do, the way I love and encourage others — when I see it and when God sees it – I want to see it as VERY GOOD!
What will your “in the beginning” look like this year? Might I urge you to try some 123-123 waltzing with the ONE we will never disappoint with His perfect LEADING!