\u201cIn the beginning\u2026\u201d are some of the most powerful words ever written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d Gen 1:1
\u201cIn the beginning was the Word.\u201d John 1:1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even Julie Andrews knew what she was talking about: \u201cLet\u2019s start at the very beginning — a very good place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And here we are — in the beginning — of 2026. A brand spanking new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which begs the question — what does brand-spanking-new even mean? One explanation traces it to newborns — those first cries signaling life has begun. I love that picture — life awakened — unmistakably new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s my prayer for this year — that 2026 would be indelibly marked by God. New thinking. New living. New grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world loves a clean slate, and so does God. Scripture promises, \u201cIf anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:17) That\u2019s not just poetic language — it\u2019s permission to begin again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve always loved asking God for a \u201cword of the year.\u201d As we prayed in the new year — Carl and I agreed that we wanted to be encouragers to others this year. Encourage — encourager — encouragement. Aw! That hint of color for the blank canvas ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our scripture to emulate: “Encourage one another and build each other up.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Genesis, God looked at what He had made and declared it \u201cvery good.\u201d (Genesis 1:31) That\u2019s my hope for this year — that the atmosphere we create, the love we give, the encouragement we offer would reflect His goodness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s to beginnings. Fresh starts. Holy possibility.
What does your \u201cin the beginning\u201d look like?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIn the beginning\u2026\u201d are some of the most powerful words ever written. \u201cIn the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d Gen 1:1\u201cIn the beginning was the Word.\u201d John 1:1 Even Julie Andrews knew what she was talking about: \u201cLet\u2019s start at the very beginning — a very good place to start.\u201d And here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33053,1210,33100,395,1720,1721,1392,32314,13827,4798,26629,33104,33103,21980],"class_list":["post-23570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-33053","tag-blog","tag-brand-spanking-new","tag-clean-slate","tag-encourage","tag-encourager","tag-facebook","tag-first-cries","tag-god-created","tag-in-the-beginning","tag-inspiraton","tag-life-awakened","tag-start-at-the-beginning","tag-the-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23571,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23570\/revisions\/23571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}