New Beginnings.

Don’t you just love the electricity in the air around New Years Eve? I feel it. The excitement. The buzz. Closing the door on the year behind. Ringing in the year ahead.

That feeling of new beginnings and fresh starts. It’s like anything is possible.

I love taking that pause before the new year begins, just a moment to reflect back on all God has done.

No matter what your year looked like, I hope you find the good, those tiny strands of light that were woven in your moments and days. I hope you thank God for the gifts He’s given and for the struggles that have made you stronger. I hope you see how far you’ve come and that you realize that fact that you’re here, still standing, is reason enough to celebrate. 

And goodness, I hope you do celebrate.

If I could send you into the new year with one thing, it’d be this.

I pray that you don’t hold back. From God. From life. From the people you love. From the people that love you. From your dreams. I pray you choose people and choose them wisely, because they will make all the difference and sometimes the ones you least expect will be the ones to change everything.

I pray you dare to be bold. About your faith. About what you believe. About how your heart beats and what you truly love. Be bold with the talent God has given you and don’t be afraid to live an outrageously full life.

I pray you try and fail and try some more. That your ups and downs would only keep your eyes on the truth that God’s got you. That you come to appreciate that rise and fall because it’s in those places that you meet God in the most beautiful of ways.

I pray you stay relentless in following God’s heart and His calling in your life. Don’t listen to the fear. Keep hope alive in your heart. Dive head first into the life God designed for you. Take chances. Say “yes” to things you’ve said “no” to a million times. Take hold of every opportunity you’re given, every moment you have to add meaning to life and spread love into the world. 

And I pray that you keep doing this all year long. That you don’t just save it for New Year’s Day. I pray you remember that every morning, every moment, can be a fresh start, because God’s love proves it to be true.

New Year’s and all it’s magic comes around once a year. So celebrate. Wish. Hope. Dream. 

And then wake up and do it again. And again. And again.

I believe 2016 will be the best year yet. I can’t wait to see what God does and where He takes you.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 3:13-14

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