A Year of Blessings

​It is the beginning of a new year!  It is a year to start over, start fresh, and have a new beginning.  Many people make New Year’s resolutions to achieve something that they want that they don’t already have.  Your new year’s promise to yourself could be to stop smoking, lose some weight, finally get those bills paid, take that trip that you have putting off, or many other things that you want to achieve in the coming year.

​While setting goals for ourselves is good and healthy to do, we shouldn’t lose sight of the things that we already have.  God has blessed each and every one of us richly but sometimes we are so focused on what is to come, we fail to see what we already have.

​We’ll start with the most obvious blessing that we have here at New Beginnings and that many of you have at home: Children!  God tells us in Psalm 127:3 “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from Him.”  We know that children are blessings given to us from the Lord, but most parents that I know (myself included) have fallen guilty of being ungrateful for these blessings, even if it is just temporary.  When we start to think of all the cost, running around, laundry, dirty dishes, messes, homework struggles, cooking, and all the other things that take up our time and energy, we lose sight of what God has given us.  Let’s remember what a blessing our Children are this year!

​How about our parents?  What a pain!  Always calling us and asking us what’s going on in the middle of our busy schedule.  We have to go over to their house yet again to fix something or help with the yard work when we already have so much of our own stuff to do.  We are told in Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord God is giving you.”  Do you remember all the things in the last paragraph that you are doing for your children?  Your parents did that for you!  Even now, they still help guide us and help us whenever we may ask.  Let’s remember what a blessing our Parents are this year!

​Troubles and trials are the last thing that many of us think about as a blessing.  Who wants all that hardship and struggle after all?  The Bible clearly tells us that these too are blessings to be counted.  In Romans 5:3-5 it says “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”  Let’s remember what a blessing our Trials are this year!

​Do you have any blessings or thoughts that you would like to share with us?  Comment in the section below to tell us what God has blessed you with this year.

Christina Pritzlaff is married with two children. She has completed Early Childhood 1 & 2 classes, Infant Toddler classes, and completed the coursework for her Associates degree in Child Development. Christina splits her time between spending time with her family and working at New Beginnings. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her children, camping, fishing, reading, and doing counted cross-stitch.

---