Happy New Year, Blogging Family! I hope that God has blessed each of you with worshipful, joyful, and peaceful Christmas holidays and that you are spiritually refreshed and physically recharged for the New Year.

If you follow us through this blog, social media, or my new book Walking with Grace, you may already know some of the amazing gifts God showered on us in 2023. My husband Ivan led a high school trip to London and Paris in June, and I got to come along! (It was our first time in Europe.) My memoir, Walking with Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma, came out last October after almost two years of sweat, prayers, and tears. Praise the Lord for his sustaining power, and major thanks to everyone who prayed and supported us along the way! This past November, I successfully completed my Master of Fine Arts in Writing. That MFA, which is a terminal degree, doesn’t really belong to me. There were so many times over the past four years where I should have flunked out or dropped out due to medical emergencies, inadequate learning accommodations, or even just basic poor health. This degree truly belongs to the Lord! Finally, the night before Christmas. I posted one more crazy amazing gift from the Lord: I believe God wants me to start playing violin again! This is a long story and will get its own post very soon, but in the meantime let us praise God for how much he has done already (check out the video!) and pray he will continue his miraculous work!

So how ’bout 2024? One part of me feels like a greedy little girl, arms overflowing with presents, straining on tip-toe with every fibre of her being to whisper a second list of presents in her father’s ear. What could I possibly ask of the God who’s given me life as a human created in his image? Not to mention given that life abundantly – ransoming me, his wayward daughter, and purifying me by the blood of his one and only Son? Nothing, I should ask absolutely nothing. Hallelujah that Father God doesn’t operate like that! He delights to draw near and listen, not just to me but to all his children, blessing us with more spiritual gifts than we could ever imagine. 

“³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. ⁶ So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. ⁷ He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. ⁸ He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. ” ~ Ephesians 1:3-8

Wow. Just wow. Let’s sit with this and let it sink in a minute.

Instead of finagling 2024 to see how much I can profit from it, I hope to spend the year drawing closer to Father God through a scheduled, daily time of Bible reading, prayer, and Scripture memorization. With God’s help, I also hope to make and keep more time available to serve my spiritual and biological families.

What about you? Do you have milestones from 2023 or goals for 2024? Please share below!