My husband said to me, “This last year has been a year of recovery for us. What’s this next year going to be?”

I think we are all asking similar questions as we look to the upcoming New Year. Don’t you wonder what 2011 will bring to your life? What changes are coming your way?

I will go on record as saying 2010 was, in many ways, our family’s hardest year ever. Don’t get me wrong, lots of wonderful things happened to us in 2010. But like so many other families, we had to learn how to live on half our previous income. As a result, among other things, we learned how to live in a smaller house, how to eat in most of the time rather than eating in our favorite restaurants, and to wait on movies to come out on DVD instead of seeing them in stadium seating at the theater.

But there were some really great things that happened in and to our family this year. Things that I would never trade. Not for more money, or even a bigger house. I’ll take a bigger house, mind you, but not in trade. I saw a peace settle over our family this year that I had not seen before. These last few months I have seen the hand of God working in our lives like I had not seen in some time. It was a hard year in many ways. There were lots of times that I argued with God over things. Do you ever do that? Argue your point with God? I know it’s silly. But I am convinced I am right, and if He would just listen to me…

So as I look to this next New Year, I do wonder what it will bring. Honestly there is just no telling. Had someone told me two years ago that I would be living back in Alabama, a stone’s throw from where I grew up, I would have thought they’d
gone round the bend. (I love that saying. Back up and read it again… this time with a British accent)

It’s a popular thing for Christians to say that God has a plan for your life. I believe that He does, of course. But if we are not careful, the saying can lose the power it really has for us. As we enter into a new year I’d like to really hand it over to Him. That’s a hard thing for me. To totally let go of my destiny. To completely trust in His plan for my family. No matter what that looks like.

No… Matter… What….

But I know God, and I know that anything He has in store must be far greater than anything I could accomplish apart from Him, or even only partially with Him. I don’t want to hold Him at arms length, close enough to run to when I’m in trouble or afraid, but far enough away that I can play at life my own way. I don’t want to hire Him as my life coach, either.

Nope. I want Him to take the reigns and take off. I may flap in the wind a little, I may even scream out in fear sometimes, but it is still preferable. Isn’t it? How about you? Are you ready to hand it over to Him? Are you ready to hand it all over to Him? All of it?

What if we say yes? And then we could meet back up a year from now and compare notes.

Oh, the places we’ll go…