It’s 2013 and I’m often slow to come around on New Year’s resolutions and goals.  Early in my parenting I heard Elisabeth Elliott’s quote “Just do the next thing” and it has characterized how I’ve lived so much of the past twelve years.  I don’t seem to have the energy often to think very far ahead, so I simply do the next thing; the next chore, the next class, the next day.  When I try to plan too far ahead I find myself trying to live too much in my own strength, not resting in my Jesus.  Do the next thing keeps me kneeling.  And so, I don’t often have my goals and resolutions ready on January 1.  It’s often on January 1 I realize I need to think about such things and I mull and pray and ponder for a few days.

And while I don’t have my goals and hopes for the year lined out yet, I do think I have a word for the year – peace.  As we come off a year of political strife and the news is filled with fiscal cliffs and killings and so much uncertainty, as we look ahead at another year for the business and the turning of a calendar page always brings so much uncertainty, as we wait and wonder over trips to Haiti and how many will there be and will our daughter come home this year, peace seems like something we are going to need to be intentional about.  As we navigate these tween years with all these girls and one enters her teens this year, as we homeschool and do marriage and ministry and life together, peace is something there is never enough of.

In the midst of a wild and sin-torn world, can our home be a place of peace and refuge?  In the midst of the crazy and the unexpected and the mundane, can my heart overflow God’s peace?  In the face of uncertainty and doubt and fear, can we model peace to a peace-starved world?  Only through resting and trusting in Jesus….May the God of hope fill you with all joy and PEACE as you trust in Him. {Romans 15:13a}

That is the challenge and goal of 2013.  What is your one word for 2013?

For His Glory ~