“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:19 

A new year is here and with it, I am finding myself in a new season. A season that I can’t believe is for me.

I feel like I blinked and 2022 was gone, and now 2023 is here. The last three months of 2022 blur into one beautiful, sweet, and perfect memory in my mind. My life has been a dream these past few months and I’ve been too busy enjoying this new season to sit down and write. But here I am, finally finding the time to write again and this time, I have so much joy and good things to write about!

On October 8th of 2022 God brought a special someone into my life. What felt like a chance meeting at the thrift store (of all places), was the start of God doing a miracle on my heart and the spark of something new. On New Year’s Eve this special someone officially asked me to go into the New Year together and take the step in continuing to deepen our relationship in a Godly way.

As I sit here, thinking about my life, and my year, all I can say is; I’m grateful. Grateful for this new season and this new relationship. Grateful as I realize that I’m at a place in my life I never thought I’d be at. I’m scared that if pinch myself I’ll wake up and find out it’s not real, because, what God has been doing for me, is just that; Too good to be true!

Now, I’m not the one to make new years resolutions. I gave up on them years ago… I can remember a few years where I picked a word for the year, but this year, 2023, I wasn’t planning on doing anything. I guess, God had other plans. Over these last few days, there is a word that God has been putting on my heart. I feel strongly now that I am to make this word my word for 2023.

The word is NEW

My 2022 ended with the start of a new season. The last three months of the year God started something new in my life. It’s been exciting, challenging, amazing, and so good! But change, even good change, can be hard sometimes, and I’ve been learning each day how to go into this new season with a grateful heart.

But as I go into this new year and new season, I don’t want to forget the place I was at not too long ago. I’ve waited so long for God to answer my prayers. I’ve cried many nights because of my hurting heart. My dreams and desires seemed to go unnoticed by God for so long. I found a note in my journal from only two years ago, telling God that I thought He forgot about me. That He somehow forgot to write me the story my heart longed for so much. For most of 2022 I was that girl who was always waiting on God. I felt like God didn’t hear me because he didn’t answer me. I thought I’d be in a season of waiting forever, and it was hard. But here’s what I see now; God had plans for me I couldn’t see yet. If you told me then where I’d be at the end of 2022 I wouldn’t believe you. It blows me away to see how I now stand here, going into a new year, embarking on a new season.

This is why new is my word for this year. 2023 is going to be a year full of lots of new and exciting things and I want to be thankful to God for each of them. I want to learn to cherish this new season and all the things that come with it. And I don’t want to forget where I was, less then a year ago, thinking I’d never be out of a waiting season. God was with me then, and is with me now, in this new year.

Here’s something I’ve been realizing and thanking God for when it comes to waiting. Because of the long waiting and because of all the hurt and pain I had to walk through, this new season is so much sweeter. Not only do I look back and see how close I became to God during the hard days and nights, but I see now how God was working out His plan for me in ways I couldn’t have even imagined. God never forgot about me, instead he was crafting a beautiful story for me to happen in His perfect timing. God wanted me to grow closer to him before this new season. And this new season has made all of the pain, heartache, and waiting worth it!

My waiting friend, maybe you need to hear this reminder. Maybe you are in the midst of waiting and don’t feel God anymore. Maybe you feel like you just can’t go another day without an answer. I want you to know that you’re not alone, I’ve been there, so many times. God is right there with you and has good plans for you. It may seem like He is silent, but God is working, Yes, my friend, In your waiting, He’s working. You can trust Him. In His perfect time and way he’ll bring you into something new.