Happy New Year

Happy New Year! We can be thankful for any opportunity to reset and begin to do better. Heather in particular loves fresh starts and clean slates. Her favorite part of the new year is actually in September, when she buys her annual “Simplified” planner from Emily Ley. All of Heather’s pens and papers are “Simplified” compatible, and they’re stylish, too! The planners have a few pages in the front for evaluating and implementing goals, like New Year’s resolutions.

Not just at the new year, but often enough, we carry a long list of goals and expectations. It’s a very good thing to have a goal and work for it. It’s another thing to think that we can plan or control it all, or that there is only one acceptable outcome.

Have you ever broken a New Year’s resolution? Or several? By February? That list of expectations is sometimes just a pre-planned list of disappointments. Surely, there can be a better way. So what will we do to make the most of 2024?

One thing that the Cresses appreciated during 2020’s lockdown was that we, like so many others, had to learn to take a slower pace. It was often actually nice to be in our home and be together as a family. We worked on things together, we played games and kept occupied, and we learned to rest. We don’t always go at that pace, thankfully, but there can be value when we do. Christmas break was that for us this year – without illness or the fear of it. Our life is full, like anyone else, with work, kids, our personal endeavors, etc. It’s no complaint – we enjoy what we’re doing, we have awesome kids – so far, so good on everything. But after the wonderful and long Sunday that was Christmas Eve, we took our days slow, and found our grounding again

Our resolutions this year are less about what we will do and more about how we will be doing it. In the words of some anonymous sage of Facebook, our 2024 will have, “More reading, less scrolling. More social, less media. More celebration, less comparison. More prayer, less worrying. More people, less things. More presence, less hustle.” We’ll get the things done that we need to get done, of course, and some extra, but we’ll keep the right rhythm as we do.

We hope that your 2024 begins, continues, and ends well. Whatever plans, goals, tasks, or anything else that you write down, make sure that you’ve got priorities and purposes written there, too. Along with What you do, remember Why. Go into 2024 with faith, hope, and love, and you’ll be on the right track. God be with you this year!

Blessings,

šColin and Heatherš