December 29, 2022
Dear Peace Families,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I hope you’ve all enjoyed quality time with friends and family, eaten good food, and rejoiced in the celebration of Christ’s birth.
As we prepare to turn the calendar to 2023, I invite you and your families to look back and reflect on 2022. What were your favorite memories? What aspects of your life have brought you the greatest joy? What experiences brought you closer together as a family? What experiences helped you grow, both as a person and in your faith? What were your biggest challenges, and how have you persevered through them? What things do you need to let go of, change, or bring more of into your life? What would you like to be more intentional about in the new year? And most importantly, how can you keep Jesus as the focal point of your life and all you do?
As you contemplate these things together, I invite you to join me in this prayer:
“O God, Creator of time, as we look at the year behind us, give us space to process the paths that got us here so that we may have vision for what lies ahead. We ask for hearts to remember the celebrations and sorrows of our family’s passing year.
“Help us reflect on the good shared between us, of the tiny moments sparkling with joy, of the celebrations twinkling with hope. May these joys energize us as we look to the new year.
“And help us, too, reflect on the hurts shared between us, of the small disappointments nestled in our hearts, of the mistakes hanging in the balance. May these sorrows teach us as we look to the new year.
“As we watch time tick by and count down to a new year, we remember that You are a God of fresh starts and clean slates. And what a gift it is that your mercies are new each morning and that we don’t have to wait for a new year to begin again.
“God, you hold all eternity in your hands. Thank you for songs to sing and moments of quiet too. May we reflect on the year behind us as we look ahead to the year in front of us.”
(Kayla Craig, “A Prayer for a New Year” [Adapted], To Light Their Way)
Grace and Peace,
Joe
Family Tip of the Week
Reflect on the year behind us as a family, and dream about your hopes for the year to come.