Day 1

When I look around, read prayer requests, talk to others, and dive into my heart I can see that we all need one thing right now more than ever... hope. Some of us need to breath it completely, while others just need a little bit to set us on our way. I think that hope in the New Year is what can help us move forward, even when it feels like our life, or certain parts, will never get better. Hope is what will get us through new challenges or existing heartaches. Hope is a way of life, where we keep moving forward even when faced with disappointment.

As My Year of Faith was ending, I hadn't resolved where the year 2012 would begin. At first I was thinking of a year of grace or joy, but neither felt right. A few days before the end of the year, I was actively praying and asking God to lead me in the right direction and that is when two new ideas came to mind. Either a year about hope or a year about serving others. I had so many reasons why they were both calling to me, and I could not decide which one to choose. Two days ago, it became clear.

My family is coming off of an arduous year of financial and personal difficulties, and all I can rely on to build our life back up is hope. I have so much of it going into this New Year. Hope that we will continue to grow and hope that this year will be better than the last. Just as I felt like I was literally living off of faith alone last year, I feel like I will be living off of hope this year. It's something that is biblically based and that people need desperately right now. People that I know and love dearly. People dealing with financial issues, cancer, loss, the inability to get pregnant, medical difficulties, and major obstacles to overcome. I feel like we all need hope in our lives; to believe that life can and will get better. But we need the kind of hope that is not just wishful thinking; we need the kind of hope that is part of our faith. The kind of hope that centers around the blessings that God promises us in His Word. The kind of hope that stands firm next to our faith and allows us to see God more clearly. The kind of hope that puts who we are and where we want to go in perspective. The kind of hope that allows us to live a more joyful and spirit filled life, because we expect things to happen, we don't just wish for them.

Why didn't I pick a year of serving others? While it was tugging at my heart because people loved on us so much last year, I knew deep down that I wasn't ready for that kind of year yet. Unfortunately a big reason is due to finances, even though I know that you can serve others with little money. But I also feel like my spiritual maturity has not grown enough for such a huge undertaking, at least the kind I want to take. When I brought it up to Mark he agreed, and then while exploring bible verses, this particular verse laid it all out for me.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13  (NIV)

Do you see it? It's no coincidence. Last year was about faith, this year will be about hope, and then next year will be about love (serving others). Next year I will end with the one that is the greatest of the three and the one that I know will be the largest undertaking. But I cannot do it without living for hope first. Our life needs to be about hope right now. That verse has nestled into my heart forever. It's amazing how God speaks to us.

I want this blog to be the opposite of the news that you read every day. The daily news is what first put hope into my mind. We have so much negativity surrounding us. In fact, we are bombarded by it constantly. No wonder why people feel like they are stuck in a mediocre and sad life. I want this blog to be a place where you feel less depressed and more hopeful, even on bad days. A place where my story can make you think about your journey. I will be here every day, sharing my life with you, so that we can connect and hopefully you can seek out God and hope in your own life.

I feel so blessed to be here. I know that it will be hard, I know their will be days when I feel like I have lost all hope, and I know that people will be challenging me every step of the way and rooting for me to fail. But, I also know that a life with no hope is the worst kind of life and I will do anything I can to spread hope into the air for someone to grasp. Please meet me here, send a friend, and help me spread a lot more hope into this world.

Here's to a new year.



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