TLTAJ

I always enjoy the posts by friends and family around certain holidays and events annually. It is so much more real than the host of other things shared on social media day in and day out. Myself, I am usually one who indulges regularly as I am one who enjoys a reflective or inspirational prompt. This year, as 2024 winded down, and 2025 began I have struggled with writing this year’s.

Why? Well it hasn’t been for a lack of subject matter, this year had no shortages of surprises, accomplishments, trials, and triumphs. I feel like I have openly communicated and shared my head space during the lows, and tried to remain humble during the highs. It feels though, after coming through it all that its much more about the present than all of those things form the past 12 months. 2024 was less about me, or any one person in our family and it was much more about the promise of faith, the power of prayer, and the awesomeness of our God, his blessings, and his mercy.

One of the personal goals or focuses for myself in 2024 was to make some progress with my faith. I wanted to begin regularly reading and studying again, like I wanted to get in a more regular and consistent rhythm with prayer. Finding a place to worship, a congregation I could serve in and one that hopefully would feel inviting enough for my family to join me in were all on the list. Some effort was put forth early in the year like with most New Year aspirations, and like most of those of those, efforts things tapered off shortly after. Never a deliberate halting of action, never a conscious refusal to try, just life, excuses, and allowing the distance to grow again.

I would be lying if I didn’t own that this has happened before, in fact one may say it has been an unfortunate pattern in my life. What baffles me in that has always been how much I believe, and how much I have relied upon and drawn strength from my faith. The organized aspect of it though, and the finality of it what comes after, the unknowns, those are the things that have caused the most angst, anxiousness, and even panic at times. My beliefs vs others in my house and the conviction I have felt for them has even at times caused conflict.

I knew that like with anything, my faith was like a muscle and I needed to use it to strengthen it. If I wanted to know what I believed was the truth and not just what I had heard, been taught, or absorbed from life and media over the years – I needed to read the actual bible. If I wanted to find a more consistent rhythm of prayer, I needed to just pray. While I have developed a decent rhythm with those two, I know still that finding a church homes isn’t going to happen without physically getting up and going to visit places.

The take away for me has been and is – its not Him its me. He is always there, and He always provides. I need not to look very far for Him as He never leaves my side. I need only to open my eyes, and open my heart. So that is what I am doing, trying to do at least; pray more, even if not feeling inspired, study / read more, even if not captivating, and try to see things with patience, kindness, love, and forgiveness like He shows me.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one ^[j]cubit to his ^[k]stature?

²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not ^[l]arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Mathew 6:25-34

This week in my “Bible in 52 Weeks” I am reading Mathew. Mathew 6:34 is special to me, it was a verse my Aunt shared with me when we were expecting the twins unexpectedly with a 2 year old at age 20. I printed it and carried it in my wallet the whole 9 months. As I have been reading the book this past week, I am humbled and in awe of just how simple Jesus lays it out for us. It has baffled me throughout my revisiting the scriptures just how complicated man always makes what God has created so simply. When I look at my life, I see that all to clearly, and am striving to simplify as much as I can. The older I get, and the older our kids get, the more the imagery of God as our Father, and us as His children registers deeper and deeper.

So in summation, the greatest lesson 2024 has taught me is to not give up, keep looking up, and invest my time and energy where I want to see the parts of my life grow the most. Again, very simple, but all too often more complicated than it needs to be.

Here’s to another trip around the sun in 2025, and more opportunities to learn and grow!