Into a New Year

The new year dawns. I’m awake early, a few quiet moments alone in a house still full of family. I’m remembering and reflecting. Looking back at a year of hints and discovery. Taking my first tentative steps into a year of unknowns.

A couple of weeks ago, heading into the throes of Christmas, I’d come up with a word:

FRUITFUL

I took note, ruminated a bit, let it sit for a while in the back of my mind. As the festivities of the season ramped up, I remained aware, thinking this might be the perfect word for the impending year. 

And now, it’s here. 

The first of January, and I sneak downstairs with Bible and journal, light the Christ candle, brew my coffee. 

I gather scratch paper for what will be a first draft, gradually taking shape in the coming week. I begin by looking back at last year’s lists and categories, comparing practices and goals to life as it’s actually unfolding. The first pages of 2025 were full of questions:

How long do our parents have?

Where will we live?

What work will we do?

What gifts will the Spirit awaken?

What will Church look like? 

Remarkable questions, looking back on them now. More insightful, even, than my resolutions. 

And then. Just like that, the old year ends, brand new beckons, and I’m ready. I pick up my pen to inscribe my 2026 banner…

when the Spirit stops me. 

Later I try to explain this to Kyle. How I’d been so sure of “fruitful.” How I’d seen it in the pages of Scripture and it seemed to be the perfect thing for this particular season. But then, absolutely certain, too, of the Spirit’s interruption. My husband (I should explain) is a practical man. He does math for a living. He definitely liked the idea of “fruitful.” It sounded, I suppose, like something the two of us could measure later. Something we could calculate. 

But I’m so certain I’ve heard the Spirit’s whisper—God redirecting my pen. And His choice for me, I will admit, feels rather normal. Expected. Kyle actually wonders out loud if I heard it right.  

“I want you to be teachable.” 

But I don’t doubt what I’ve heard Him say. This is not without meaning. My God-given word is in fact an answer to prayer. The Lord’s perfect response to my end-of-year repeated confession. How many times have I acknowledged this niggling temptation of unwanted pride? A hardness of heart and a certain resistance to—

Teaching? 

Yes, teaching. 

Of course.

I am at once convicted and convinced, setting it in ink at the top of a page. 

2026

TEACHABLE

• humble

• surrendered

• listening

• open

A passage of Scripture comes to mind, and I search my Bible to find the reference. Psalm 25:4-5…

Make your ways known to me, Lord;

teach me your paths.

Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation;

I wait for you all day long.

And so. I bend my knee and I posture to receive what He so graciously offers. Acknowledging, too, how a teachable heart so often does 

bear fruit.