By Erica, Contributing Writer

Happy New Year! There is something refreshing for me to enter a new year, clean up the Christmas decorations, and look  down the long corridor of the future year. If we have cherished times in our year it is usually because we choose to make it that way. Our new year is a gift from the Lord, we should purposefully make the beginning of our year a time to chart out the things we should do this year to make it special.

Here are some ideas on what a “new beginning” is:

• A new year
• A new season
• A new day
• A new home
• A new recipe
• A new/renewed friendship
• A newly remodeled or decorated room
• A new spiritual challenge
• A new/renewed love for your husband

We should look with admiration at the present day as a gift, and never cease to wonder what God will do in our lives! He has a plan, although we do not know the who’s, what’s, and where’s, we can somewhat control how we treasure the current moment. Life is ever-changing, but change should not allow you to create an excuse to just let life pass you by with no intentions of making your home and life a happy place to live. Create your new beginnings to involve Christ is every aspect. Use them to teach and train your children! Use them to value your husband for who God made Him to be. Use them to encourage yourself in God’s Word and to walk daily in a close relationship with Him. Use them to spoil those you love.

Sometimes we look at these new beginnings as an inconvenience. Home life can be shuffled, but it’s God’s way of stirring the nest and creating new beginnings for your home. He has a way of moving things around in your life so that you can see something new and get your creative juices flowing for your family.

Each new beginning holds a treasure and should be worth investing your time into. A new season lends itself to plentifully with opportunities to decorate, create traditions, and renew. God created all of the seasons, I believe, to help us not remain in a rut. The mundane tasks of the daily routine are necessary to remain an organized and functioning home, but that should never be just our existence. We need to learn to sometimes take a break away from the routine and search out new ways to embrace new beginnings.

I asked friends to tell me the benefits of new beginnings and this is what they said…

“New things stir away stagnation. They make you anticipate and hope and in some ways prepare for the unknown, good or bad. Your sensitivities are more aware. You are vulnerable. Sometimes you are more free…. or more committed…. or more thoughtful and even surprised and off guard.”

“When we moved, it helped me do new things that I would not normally do. I am not a motivated person, so it got me out of my comfort zone.”

“Sometimes something “new” brings about a renewed optimism and regenerates our zeal to serve those around us.”

“A new recipe can bring a spark of enthusiasm to a family celebration.”

How to Create Special Memories from New Beginnings

Plan

Not every new beginning is planned, but for those we can plan for, we should! Look at your calendar and find the ways in which you want to celebrate the upcoming new beginnings that will be in your life this year. Schedule them, write them down, and do some research on how to go about accomplishing your plans. If you’re not a scheduling type, then perhaps you could write down on an idea board or bucket list of what things you are interested in doing and then do them when the time is right.

Create

Women generally have a knack for creativity, so employing it in making new seasons, new meals, new relationships fun and enjoyable is part of your job. If you’re the type that is just not creative, then be a copy cat! Look at what other people are doing and do it like them, just put your own twist on it and add your own personal spiritual insight to the creativity.

Execute

Actually DO the things you plan to make your new beginnings special in your life! Rearrange a room and get rid of the junk and freshen it up with flowers. Write a love note to your husband to rekindle your dwindling flame. Get that recipe out that you’ve been wanting to try, make your shopping list and do it! There are so many fun things to plan on doing, but what’s the joy in planning if you do not get it done? You lose the sparkle of a new beginning if you let it slip past you.

By embracing new beginnings, in whatever form they come or you choose them to be, you create an atmosphere in your home of good memories (as long as you are not causing stress in these situations). You can create an atmosphere of peace, of anticipation, of joy, and God’s love. Use your creativity to bring sparkle into your family life and you no doubt will feel blessed as this year passes and you look back and see all of the blessings and opportunities that were used for God’s good.