| Holding Onto Hope-January Reflections

The first month of the year has slipped away, and it’s time to turn the Calendar page again.

Myself, like many I’m sure, looked forward to the start of 2021 with a cautiously optimistic attitude. One month into the new year and it is hard to hold on to that optimism. I was so hoping that we might start to return to normal life, or at least see a light at the end of the tunnel.

But with vaccines slow to be administered, and in short supply, governments seem more than happy to continue to restrict our rights and freedoms, while making excuses, and tying up forward process with bureaucratic red tape. Meanwhile, people continue to lose their jobs and livelihoods, and strife is everywhere.

The whole situation leaves me in a state of anxiety about the future, and uncertainty to make any plans.

But through it all God keeps reminding me that He is faithful and He is good. He loves us! He is still in control! That we are called to trust Him, and live one day at a time. And that I still have so much to be thankful for.

Although we miss sports and activities that we no longer are permitted to enjoy, our family has grown closer creating activities of our own. Many afternoons and evenings have been spent at our homemade rink which Josh so diligently tends for us. This is been a wonderful way to connect as a family and get some much-needed outdoor time and exercise. Although our future is uncertain, and I often wonder what kind of adulthood our boys will inherit, I hope we can all grow stronger as families, loving each other, Lifting each other up, connecting and bonding, as we will need strong families to weather whatever storms life will bring us in the future.

Although I have lost work myself, due to lockdowns and cancelled events, I’m reminded that God still provides and cares for me, and that I can bring my worries to him.

“ Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life” Matthew 6: 26-27

His grace and mercy are new each morning and He is a very present help in trouble. He is good even through all of these trials. And even on the coldest and darkest of days His lovingkindness is everlasting.