The world is groaning, troubled, and wilting. We know it and discuss it at length. Despite it all I don’t look back on 2020 with despair or even an emphatic “good riddance”. The year behind us, just like the year ahead, has been a gift. A gift of joy, happiness, growth, and time.

Time. It’s precious because we have little. Priceless because we are fragile. And yet hard to grasp because we believe we will have tomorrow. We lose ourselves in the monotonous work of the home, forgetting how grand the gift of time is, because it has been disguised as “just another day”.

Just another load of laundry, just another scrapped knee, another story, another meal, another walk, another spill, another diaper, another drive… Just another day.

I am not naive enough to believe we can bask in the wonder of this gift always. Some days are hard. Some days are boring and uneventful. They can be long and even overwhelming (or perhaps underwhelming). 

I rarely make New Years resolutions. I have never found them beneficial. But last year I chose a word. It was REST. I thought of it often and even when life felt out of control and chaotic, I accepted rest. Rest in the knowledge that there is One in control. That no matter the circumstance I can find joy and rest in Him.

This year I chose the word TIME.

Time. A word I will write on my heart so I remember to use it wisely. To put my phone down. To work when it is time to work. Play when it is time to play. And rest when it is time to rest.

Time. A word to remind me to be productive, disciplined, and generous. To give freely, to work joyfully, and to raise my children diligently. It’s a word to remind me that my days have already been ordained by the Creator and I am not my own.

Time. So at the end of every day, no matter what kind of day it turned out to be, I will close my eyes thankful for the day before and hopeful for the day tomorrow. Content to even exist in this beautiful world, this impossible story I get to live out.

And with that, from my family to yours, no matter what tomorrow holds, we wish you a very Happy New Year filled with joy and thankfulness for the time we have left.