Before You Ring in the New Year!

I grabbed my stocking cap, pulling it snug over my ears and stepped outside.

Pulling my gloves from my pocket I inhaled deeply.

“There’s nothing like the crisp clean air of winter,” I thought.

Still, the temperature had dropped and it took everything in me to brave the cold.

Walking around the bend I passed the neighbor’s deflated Christmas display, and then later sad, little, trees stripped of their dress lying forlorn on the concrete.

They were bits and pieces of something ending, and I felt sad.

Walking on I saw another neighbor scurry outside with a new puppy. Hurrying it, to “take care of business,” so they could return to the cozy indoors. I chuckled at the puppy romping, taking it’s own sweet time. Another story just beginning.

Endings and beginnings.

 

The days between Christmas and New Years always seem a bit hard.

Maybe you find yourself stuck between the times gone by and new ones to come.

You are laying down some things to rest and picking up new ones.

And all the feelings that accompany this laying down and picking up can leave you just a bit dizzy, not knowing which end is up.

What is that feeling? Is it lack of control? Is it fear? Maybe you had a good year and you hate to see it go, not sure what tomorrow will bring.

Or maybe it’s been the toughest year yet and you feel weary of the past and too weak to hope for tomorrow.

When I feel this way, my chest starts to tighten and I know something must go.

It’s time to create space, to weed the soil of my heart of excess things that aren’t bearing fruit. I must water my heart with the word so that the roots can grow down even deeper anchoring me to my one true love.

Then and only then will I be ready for the NEW.

Colossians 2:7 says,  “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

The one way to walk into the “New” is to let your roots grow beloved. When they grow deep into Jesus, they become strong enough to build a life on. Then you can walk into a New Year with thankful hearts.

We had this tested just a couple of years ago when Alan was diagnosed with a brain tumor on New Years Eve. Not how I envisioned that new year beginning. I won’t say it was easy, it was the hardest thing we have ever walked through. Our own personal fire so to speak. But I can tell you this. It was our roots anchored in Christ that kept us fighting for joy. They kept us rooting out bitterness and savoring the moments. Not because we are good “root growers” but because His word is living. Every time we chose to water our shaking hearts with His word, His living word brought life, to hearts that felt like they were dying.

So before you welcome the New Year in, as you lay things down and before you pick new things up, don’t forget to water your roots.

And if your roots are not yet planted in Jesus, there has never been a better time.

 

6 Replies to “Before You Ring in the New Year!”

  1. Thanks Tara! I’ve not thought of my roots in Jesus in that way before.

    1. Roots have been on my mind as the storms of life come and we find the anchor of Christ continue to hold!

  2. Your words have blessed me so much this past year! Thank you for sharing your heart and passion for the Lord through your writing! Praying God’s continued blessings for you and your family this new year!

    1. Thank you Julie! Praise God He has met you in the words I have shared! Your prayers are a gift to me! – Tara

  3. Amen! Thank you once again, Tara, for showing me clearly the path I need to walk! And based on His Word! I recently started “watering” my roots more, and plan to do so each morning ~ first thing ~ before anyone else is up or needs anything of me. It has been a tough year’s end for our family, with my father being hospitalized for the past 63 days. Things are touch and go right now… but we are faithful and praying for God’s will. Sending Love from Pennsylvania!

    1. I am so sorry it’s been so hard and thankful for God’s faithfulness to you and yours to Him! May He bless you all and carry you daily! – Tara

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