January - Hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15: 13

I must apologize for being so long in posting on the blog. Just before Christmas my father-in-law had a mild stroke, and on January 30th my beloved brother-in-law, John Buchanan, went from death to life after an eleven-month battle with pancreatic cancer. I know many of you were praying for him and have been praying for our family through these difficult days. Thank you so much. I have felt prayer holding me together as we have traveled to Naples and back, to Nashville and back, and soon to San Francisco and back. Please continue to pray for Lucy's comfort and Big Ben's quick improvement, healing, and return home soon.

Lucy and John in July at Sarah's Rehearsal Dinner

All of the above has landed me in January and it has been very hard to say "Happy New Year". But I have. And I have meant it. Somehow through the grace of God, hope springs up in my heart and I am grateful and humbled by what the Lord has done this past year, and has done in just the last few days. It gives me great hope for the year ahead.

I want to follow Him more closely, love Him more dearly, and be more surrendered and sold out than ever before. I want the year ahead to be all about Him and not about me. I pray the same thing for you. Happy New Year, my friends.

You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. Psalm 65: 11 NLT