Happy New Year!

This is the first day of my first full year as Zachary’s wife.  I am looking forward to the year to come with great expectations.  Our baby will be born, and we will begin the exciting and challenging adventure of parenting!  Most of all, I want to grow in my relationship with my Heavenly Father and my husband and learn to balance my varying responsibilities wisely.  This year will demand much more patience and diligence than I am used to demonstrating, but I know that with the Lord’s help, I will be up to it.  He never gives us more than we can handle when we are faithfully leaning on Him.

I will not have time to waste this year.  I need to make sure that every day counts.  Psalm 90:12 reads, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  I want wisdom.  I desire a heart that is faithful to both my God and my husband.  The words of Eliza Lucas Pinkney have been on my mind lately, and I want her resolution to be my own in the years to come.

She wrote:

“I am resolved by the grace of God assisting me to keep, to make a good wife to my dear husband in all its several branches; to make all my actions correspond with that sincere love and duty I bear him… To be careful of his health, of his interests, of his children, and of his reputation: …and next to my God, to make it my study to please him.

“I am resolved to be a good Mother to my children, to pray for them, to set them good examples, to give them good advice, to be careful both of their souls and bodies, to watch over their tender minds, to carefully root out the first appearing and budding of vice, and to instill piety, virtue, and true religion into them.”

I know the children mentioned here are older than my little baby that is yet to be born, so my mothering will not look quite like the images that come to my mind when I read this.  However, it is never too early to pray for my baby.  It is never too soon to be a follower of Christ worth emulating.  No little eyes are watching me yet, but they will be soon, and I want to reflect Christ in the way I seek after the Lord, interact with others, and care for my husband and home.  I feel like I fail at this in so many ways, but I must trust that He will help me to grow and change.  This daily transformation does not magically happen.  It is the result of time and effort, and I pray now that I would have the diligence to put that time and effort in.

I am trying not to set myself up for disaster by committing to a long list of resolutions this year since I know my life is going to be turned upside down in a few months, but there are a few certain things that are always important.  Prayer, Bible reading, and witnessing make that short list.  After my relationship with God, my relationship with my husband must be first in my life.  I will never be successful if I do not have these two things in their proper places.  Hobbies, amusements, friends, etc. are nice, but they are secondary, and I am determined that I will not let them distract from what is truly important this year.