A Jar full of Blessings
Happy New Year!
I hope you have all had a blessed Christmas.
I always love the beginning of a new year; it almost feels like a brand-new start every January 1st. I am always reminded of the line in Anne of Green Gables where Anne declares “tomorrow is fresh with no mistakes in it”. The beginning of a new year feels a little like that to me. I don’t know about you, but I tend not to make new year’s resolutions, mainly because although I start off strong and with so much willingness to see it through, I tend to falter very quickly and soon all my hard work and plans for success are quickly forgotten. Perhaps you are similar, or maybe you have more will power than I do!
One of my close friends has a tradition in his family whereby every Friday night they make a point of having a special family dinner and at the end of the meal they all write down on a slip of paper something they have been grateful for over that past week. They place them in a jar and every December 31st they take them out and they read them as a family and remember all the wonderful things which had taken place over the last 365 days, which they might have forgotten about had they not written them down. What a lovely thing to do! Sometimes we can get so caught up in the concerns of today or the worries for the future that we can sometimes forget to ponder over the everyday blessings which God has bestowed on us up until this moment.
Maybe you have a family tradition like this one? I know that I personally can easily forget the blessings and only focus on the difficulties at times and therefore, this year, I aim to be a little bit more like my friend and their jar of blessings and try to take note of the things I am thankful for.
And so today I pray this blessing over you and your family from Numbers 6 v 24-26
“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”
Amen.
Written by Naomi Ackland, Office Coordinator for Swindon Youth for Christ