As we prepare to close out 2024 and look ahead into a new year, my heart is full of gratitude. Some of you may have had the best year of your life. You reached your goals, started a new job, got engaged or married, had a baby, or happily retired.

Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about what life could and maybe should look like? It is easy to daydream about life when you are a child because the naivety of life leaves you looking through the lens of life through possibility.

We often interchange two words with very different meanings—hope and wish. Do you remember wishing for something when casting a coin into a fountain or blowing out birthday candles? Today, you may wish your life were different or wish your circumstances could change but wishing lacks something that hope holds. 

It’s December! What I love about this time of year is everyone’s joint focus on words like hope, peace, and of course the beautiful nativity. When we think of the Christmas story, we often jump to the inn, the manger, and the starry night when Jesus was born. However, let's pause for a moment and focus on the remarkable journey of Mary in Luke 1.

Do you find yourself wanting to quit often? Let me encourage you that if you want to move forward in any area of your life, you must learn to stick it out! You have to become a person who overrides the temptation to bail out when things get uncomfortable, boring, or even challenging.

Having been married for 27 years, I regret to inform you that my husband Jeff and I are still having some of the same arguments or disagreements we’ve had since the early years of our marriage. Crazy right?

November–the month that has become synonymous with being thankful, grateful, blessed. We hear it and see it so often–it’s plastered on throw pillows, coffee mugs, and wall decor–that it’s become commonplace, and sometimes that over inundation can lead to indifference.