Have you listed your goals for this year? Ways you want to improve? For many of us, this past year was tough. Challenges. Trials. Pain. Grief. And some of you are struggling right now. I always told my children when hard or frustrating things happened that trials build character. One of my daughters, who has had a particularly rough couple of years, asked, “Don’t I have enough character yet?” I know how she feels. For years, I struggled to try harder, live better, do more. My efforts mostly took me down a lot of dead ends. I’ve found the key to really living is not in how hard I work, but in who I am walking with. What I trust. How I am willing to open my heart.

I can’t explain the hard stuff, but I think God wants far more for us than we seek. Our eyes looking way higher than our glances take us.

There is so much more life available with God than we ever reach out for. How do we go from trying hard to trusting much and receiving more?

My path changed when I began to listen to — really hear — the voice telling me I am loved.

Then I learned what we tirelessly teach our little ones – to say thank you.  Giving thanks for what I have, seeing the blessing, however tiny, puts a new lens on my day.

And the gratitude heart leads me to trust. My hard edges melt when I find the thanksgiving places.

Then I can relax into hands far stronger than mine, and more loving than any earthly hands could ever be.

What are you aiming for this year?