Happy New Year

Thanks be to God, we now find ourselves at the beginning of another year! Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days, or if you really want to break it down, Eight thousand, seven hundred, and sixty hours, if God grants us another year, to make a difference. If you have the privilege to stand here again next year, will this be the year you had an impact on the world around you, or will it be another year wasted, filled with regrets of things which might have been?

Life is about beginnings and endings, every day children are born, while at the same time souls pass from this life into eternity. The same is true about each day, in that every morning is a new opportunity to make this world a better place, before we lay our head down at the end of it. There is no greater example of this than the beginning of a new year. On New Year’s Eve, we celebrate the passing of the old and the excitement of a new opportunity. Our Heavenly Father hands us a blank canvas to paint and it is up to each of us whether we can create a masterpiece, or if you have ever stood in an art gallery, staring at the painting and wondered just what the artist was thinking kind of piece. What will the picture of your year look like?

Personally I have had too many of my end of the year portraits look like a two year old finger-painting, rather than a well thought out scene, where each and every brushstroke is planned and the colors are blended with purpose and direction. However, just like that two year old eventually can learn to pick up a brush and perhaps like Leonardo DaVinci, paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, our works while probably not that monumental, can still positively affect our world.

What if this next year you were able to help just one family, either as an individual or through a local organization live a better life than the one they have right now? How much of an impact would it be to teach a child or even an adult to read? For those of you who are mechanically inclined, what about taking a Saturday morning and fixing a single moms’ car, so she has more opportunities to create a better life for her family. Maybe it is something just as simple as mowing the grass for someone who has been under the weather. No matter what your abilities are, each one of us can make a difference right where we live, one person and community at a time.

Just imagine for a moment the impact a little bit more servitude towards our fellow man would mean here on this earth. My last challenge is, what if each one of us would ask God to put at least one more lost soul in our pathway this year, and grant us the opportunity to lead that soul to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Not only will we be affecting lives on earth, but for all of eternity as well.

My prayer for the New Year is that God’s love and blessings will be upon all who read this, and hopefully somehow this little message will impact your lives as much as each one of you have made a difference in mine. Let us all be resolved that together we will love each other a little more, keep our criticisms to ourselves, and serve our fellow man as the Word of God tells us to, and pray for the world in which we live. Happy New Year to all!