Kim Wilbanks

There is something special about New Year’s Day.  It is a day of hope and promise.  A day of looking ahead.  Maybe this will be the year that I finally get organized, get in shape, get a plan . . . just fill in the blank!

The image I get in my mind is that of a snowball at the top of a big hill (which is a little strange since I have lived in the state of Florida my entire life)!  The year begins slowly.  The change from the frantic pace of the holidays is evident.  If you are like me, you start out with the best of intentions.  It seems easy to stay on track in January.  The pace picks up a bit as it gets closer to spring.  There are Valentines to send and preparations to be made to celebrate Easter.  There are trips to the beach or the mountains in the summer.  (That snowball is rolling down the hill a little faster).  Then autumn arrives and with it football season and a seemingly endless string of high school and college football games. (Did I mention I was married to a sports fanatic)?   By the end of the year, the snowball is traveling at breakneck speed until it explodes in a flurry of activity!

The last quarter of the calendar year is always somewhat hectic for my family because my husband’s birthday is in November and mine is in December.  Each year we go from birthday to Thanksgiving to birthday to Christmas in a period of about six weeks!  (This is part of the explanation why you have not seen any activity from me since September)!  By the time January 1 rolls around, I am ready to sit back, relax, reflect, regroup and get ready to do it all again!

This year I have something really big to look forward to!  A new chapter in my empty nest life.  A wedding!  My daughter got engaged this past October on a California beach!  Remember my earlier post, 23?  Well, as I expected, she has set a wedding date after her 24th birthday.  There will not be a fifth generation of 23 year-old brides.  Sigh.  Nevertheless, I am looking forward to helping my daughter and her fiance plan a fall wedding.  I’m sure the experience will provide ample material for interesting blog posts.  (If any readers have good advice for the mother of the bride, I’m all ears)!

So, Happy New Year!  I hope that 2015 is great year for you and yours!

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

                                                              Philippians 3:13b-14 (ESV)