2024 - Happy New Year!

 Here's to another new year! Who knows what kind of treasures and adventures I will discover in 2024. I don't usually do resolutions, but I'll often sit in a space and ask God - what do you want me to notice this year? 

In 2023 the word He gave me was repentance. It was a hard and confronting journey - (still is). Necessary for growth and change and deeply painful. It requires facing the music, confession, drastic change in my behaviour, in my character,  my parenting, my work - relationships, everything....This is an ongoing focus that won't end when the clock ticks over to a new year. 

However while I've never felt so low in myself - I never felt so close and carried by God. Probably more than ever. His grace has been found every morning. I found some friends who loved me in my heartache - and who walked with me in my shame.

I really do “thank God” for this year...even in all the pain.  I’m so thankful we serve a God that loves us so much He doesn't leave us in our sin - He calls us out - so we can be free from it - but sometimes it can be painful. I have never been so aware of my weakness and His greatness, my lack and his sufficiency, His majesty and my humility.

While I don't know what's ahead, I do want to keep moving forward in my faith. The word I keep coming back to for this next season is "To Stand". Ephesians 6 talks about wearing the full armour of God and that at the end "when you have done everything, to stand."

I need some time to marinate in this word this year - and discover more of what it means to stand.

Two habits I'd love to practice more are "creating with mistakes" and "scripture memorisation."