You’d likely not know it from the number of times I hit the snooze button some days, but I love new days. A new chance to do what God’s given us to do. A fresh start after a night of rest and a reset on whatever happened yesterday. God’s mercies are new every morning, even January 1, as a new year comes simultaneous to a new day. This new year, we have a fresh start to include God in what we do as we go about our ordinary days.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7   

• Resolutions-Resolutions are often our way of saying “I’m not being who I’d like to be in this area, and I want to change.” If your family is in the practice of making resolutions, talk about them in the context of why those changes matter. Model repentance for areas of sin that you are working on changing and help your kids repent too. Ask God to change your heart together. We cannot change our actions alone and expect results, Heart change is necessary for real change.
• New Starts-There are so many things that start new at the beginning of a new year. One great opportunity we have is in our relationships. If we have broken or sour relationships, we can take time to talk to that person and mend issues. We can also use the new year to forge new relationships. As a family, decide at least one person each that you will befriend and get to know this year. Then talk about ways that you can start to do that.
• New Year-As you transition into remembering what year it is now, use every error of saying or writing the wrong date to remind you to talk. Talk about the year passed—favorite memories, God’s greatest blessings, times when God was with you, ways you saw God at work in your life. Then look to this new year—talk about what you look forward to, what you are hoping for, how God is calling you to serve Him.
• Ball-Countdowns, whether they be the Times’ Square ball or otherwise, have a way of generating excitement that can be really fun. What are things that we can countdown to that point us to God? We don’t know when Jesus will be coming again, but we do know when He came at Christmas. We do have a day we remember when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. We know the day God entered into each of our hearts (Baptism).

As we ring in the new year, we also ring in new opportunities to talk about God as we go about life just as God has called us to do. God, grant that we may be faithful to that responsibility in the year to come!