The Hope of a New Year
I love New Year’s. It’s a time to start over, refresh and renew. Most people make resolutions about what they will change for the new year and those resolutions usually have to do with making ourselves more “acceptable”. We want to lose weight. We want to get makeovers, get a new job with better pay. There isn’t anything wrong with having goals for the new year, but it’s also a great time to remember that God loves us just as we are. He doesn’t care whether we’re apple or pear shaped, whether our clothes are in the latest styles. He loves models and metrosexuals, but he loves us ordinary folks, too. In that light, I think an interesting resolution would be to spend the next year trying to see yourself and others through God’s eyes. Ask him to show you how he sees you – and how he sees others. It may change the way you view yourself. If, after seeing yourself as God sees you, you still want to lose weight and change your hairstyle, go for it! But you can do it with the spirit of adventure that goes with trying something new rather than with the anxiety of wanting to be accepted or loved.
You are loved.