Every year on New Year's Eve our family gathers around the kitchen table. We pray together as a family, we remember blessings from the past year, and we each choose a bible verse that represents our resolution for the coming year. Last year mine was Psalm 100, five verses that talk about praising God continually. My goal for the year was to praise God not only when life was going smoothly, but also when it was faced with its challenges and frustrations.
Looking back at the past year, I couldn't have chosen a more appropriate year for this resolution. Quite possibly the most challenging year of our lives, 2014 provided lots of opportunities to practice being thankful and praising God when life got tough. In the midst of our first year of homeschooling with Joey teaching, leading the driver's ed program, and coaching three sports, we were also selling our home and having our 5th child. Amongst the happy chaos that is our everyday life, we sold our house, then lost the buyer two weeks before closing. We lived out of boxes for 5 months, finally sold our house again, and put a contract on a house that we later had to withdraw because there were $20K worth of major and immediate issues to make the house safe and livable (and the buyer wouldn't budge on the price). We started looking at apartments and rental homes that could accommodate our family of 7 (by now we had a newborn), found a place to live, moved with our 5 kids on a Saturday, moved Joey's dad from High Point to Garner on Sunday....it's been quite the year.
And yet, what an amazing year for growth. What a joy to experience the complete and all-encompassing peace that comes when you truly trust God and give Him all the praise and glory, even when circumstances seem bleak. What an opportunity to teach our children by example...as Joey told the kids when we lost our first buyer, "It's a disappointment, but it's not a tragedy." And what an opportunity to see God working in our lives. We lost our first buyer two days before we were to pay for an inspection. During our second attempt to purchase a home, we received the inspection in just enough time to stop the appraisal, which saved us another $500. We were frantically looking at apartments, not sure where we were going to live, when a friend called with a lead that she got when she bumped into someone at the grocery store. I truly believe God was working in her heart that night. Literally overnight we had a place to live. When it was time to move we experienced an outpouring of support as family, friends, and neighbors gave of their time, talents, and muscle, moving the majority of our household in a matter of hours and entertaining our kiddos in the process. It was a labor of love that brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it. And, of course, the most beautiful blessing of the year was the birth of Emerson Joy Walls...our sweet girl who each and every day lives her middle name (never has there been a happier baby) and who, for the two months surrounding our move, slept through the night every single night like a champ. That's God. She doesn't sleep through the night now, but that's fine with me because she did when I needed her to the most.
Today, as I reflect on the past year and look forward to all that 2015 will bring, I have been considering what bible verse I want to choose for the coming year. One of the phrases on our new "family rules" canvas kept coming to mind, "embrace & extend grace." Grace - God's unmerited divine favor. We don't deserve it, can't earn it, and yet God lovingly extends His great grace to us time and again. It's something I want to practice in the coming year. For me, extending grace will include practicing patience, kindness, meekness, humbleness of mind, longsuffering, being slow to anger. These are things I want to demonstrate and characteristics I want to teach my children. After searching the bible, I found a beautiful verse that articulates my heart for the coming year:
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24
I am so thankful for all that God has done this year and I am so excited to stand for Him in 2015 as I work to embrace and extend grace! Happy New Year, friends! My God bless you exceedingly abundantly above in the coming year!
