Six Ways We Welcome Another Year

At the end of the year, and the first week of the new one, too, our family does at least six things to welcome the New Year.

1) Pick the year's Bible reading plan (and add a new notebook, if needed). We're off the common path of reading through the Bible in a year and instead we're continuing with the reading of an entire book of the Bible every day for 30 days. January's book is Colossians. All of us found reading through Philippians for the month of December to be very beneficial. We'll be reading through Proverbs at lunch and the Psalms at dinner. Our Pastor is currently teaching from Isaiah. So even though I am concerned about spending most of our time in the New Testament, our family is exposed regularly enough to the "big picture" that I don't think a year of mainly working our way through the Pauline epistles will be harmful. :)

2) Decide on a Family Focus: I wrote about this at my Multitude of Mercies blog. Our  Family Focus is our family's theme for the year. Last year was "A Passion for Prayer." This year's focus is "Christian Love." Thus, most of our group readings will be focused on this topic, as well as the hymns we learn and the Scriptures and poetry we memorize.

The books we plan to read this year about Christian love are:
Charity and Its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards
Christian Love by Hugh Binning
Chapters from A Christian Directory by Richard Baxter
Love in Hard Places by D.A. Carson
Chapters from Wayne Mack's Manuals for Biblical Living
The Fruitful Life: The Overflow of God's Love Through You by Jerry Bridges
Love Walked Among Us: Learning to Love Like Jesus by Paul Miller
Various writings about love and charity at Monergism.

3) Write thank you letters to those who impacted our lives in a significant way in 2011. I still remember getting a letter from a friend years after we'd moved away from each other in which she told me that I was the primary influence in her coming to Christ. If not for that letter, I never would have known that she'd even remembered those gospel-centered conversations around the table. Every one of us has at least one person to thank from the previous year (or years ago if that's who the Spirit brings to mind) for touching our lives or encouraging us in a special way.

4) Evaluate our time. Time sheets are great for this as we're asking ourselves in what areas we need to spend more time and in what areas we need to cut back.

5) Ask ourselves how we've grown in the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the past year. A stagnant Christian life is dangerous. Each year we should be growing in our relationship with the LORD, and reviewing how God has been at work in us over the past year is just one way we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. If you don't know where to start, pray about it, and also ask your family to share how they've seen you grow.

6) Make reading lists. The list isn't a chain but a guide. I read very few books from last year's list. God had other plans for my time. BUT, the list kept me focused and kept me from reading only in one genre, which is my tendency. It's delightful to sit around the table as a family and encourage each other's list making, too, and my Mom even participated this year!

What's at least one thing you and your family always do to welcome another year?

With love,
Trisha