Happy New Year! If you are reading this then not only are you taking the time to read amateur writing, but it also means the Christ has allowed you to see a new year. Another year to grow as a person. Another year to draw closer to Him, as Matthew 25: 13 says, we know not when He will come.

As we await His return, with a new year comes new goals; resolutions. What are yours? Maybe you desire to gain muscle or lose weight. Perhaps this is your year to ditch paying rent to becoming a homeowner. Do you want to go back to school? Want to kick those bad habits to the curve?

My resolution for 2025 is simple- be happy. Whether that happiness can be achieved by living for the Son of God; keeping calm in stormy life matters; making unscheduled time for my hobbies; taking naps; saying “no” sometimes; or being a good husband and father, happiness is going to gained.

For the last couple years, my New Years Eve tradition has been to spend the last couple minutes in prayer. I guess God had something else in mind, because by around 8, my wife and I were dead asleep. Intersting enough, I woke up at exactly 12 AM to the sound of fireworks and the rumbling of my cellphone blinking with New Years eve messages from family. At first I felt regretful for breaking my end- of- year tradition, but I realized how much work I had done in the last month on the job; how much time I had given my church; and the changes my wife and I are going through with a baby coming. Maybe it was the will of God for me to rest for the remainder of 2024. Me waking up at the first minute of the new year could have only been Him. It was then that I cast any rising shame aside, and spoke praises and pleas to Him for the New Year.

Continuing on about rest, no longer will I apologize for needing a break or adjusting my schedule when I need to. My life is changing everyday as I am a Christian, father, husband, full-time worker, and human being. I believe if you want to eat you must work, and if you have talents you should use them for God’s glory, but ask yourself, when do you rest?

Employers can replace you at any time. Perhaps you do bust your butt everday, but consider that if you were to die, the workplace would most likely go on without you. God wants you to be a light to the world( Matthew 5: 14-16), but He doesn’t want you to burn yourself out with continual works that end up becoming tasks rather than acts of love. Kindly encourage your peers to do their part in spreading the gospel, from helping someone move into a new place; to runninng programs; to lending their ears to somone in distress.

This year, let’s remind each other to take naps during the day when we need to, and to fall asleep at a good time in the evening.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11: 28 NJKV”

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