Granny Hat’s better half always used to tell the kids not to wish their life away. This was after statements like, “I just can’t wait until summer break when I can go to camp.” or “I can’t stand Mr. So and So’s class one more minute, next semester will be better.” or for Granny herself when she said things like “When this show is over, I’m gonna take a long, hot bath and refuse to answer the phone.”
Each year is full of good times and hard times. At the close of each lap around the sun, most people hope for a better year, a happier year, a year with less trials. Christmas newsletters are replete with the happy highlights, no mention made of the “tear your hair out days”, the moments of despair and disappointment. Few of us want to list the losses, the tragedies, the unfair circumstances. But we all want a clean start to a New Year, one with more joy and less sorrow.
Granny rarely makes New Year’s resolutions. She knows she won’t get past Super Bowl Sunday with resolve. So why try? Instead, every January 1, she sneaks tippy toe into the New Year, trying not to roil the waters. Maybe this year will come with fewer mistakes, more maturity, peaceful feelings like the falling snow. She loves the clean, white re-set of Winter.
There was no time for peaceful reflection in 2025. The year was unsettling to Granny Hat on several fronts the minute the ball dropped in NYC. She wondered if it was just her or did everything seem to be falling apart and turning upside down. People she admired died tragically, unrest and division developed all over the country she loves. Her church went through a transition after a pastor resigned. Friends and family were experiencing real heartache and fear. Granny realized she can’t always believe what she hears, conspiracies abound, and truth is a rare commodity.
Granny Hat began to wish that 2025 would just go away and usher in 2026, a fresh start. “Don’t wish your life away” kept ringing in her ears, though. We aren’t promised tomorrow and today needs to count for something. So, she began to ask God to help her walk each day ready to learn what He wanted her to know. She found herself on her knees more, reading truth from the only place AI can’t intervene, the Word of God. The “peace that passes all understanding” began to fall like fresh snow on Granny’s heart. The year, yes even 2025, belonged to God. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand.” Proverbs 19 : 21
If you, readers, are anything like Granny, you probably realize how futile New Year’s resolutions can be. After all, we can’t see what is coming around every corner throughout the 365 or predict how we will react. Instead, we can wake up resolved every day to listen, learn and grow. We can ask God to make every single day count in some way to His glory, for His kingdom. We can be ready “in season and out of season to preach the Word”. 2 Timothy 4 : 2 Daily Resolutions!
Even when the “sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine” (Eagles), the days of our next year are numbered, ordered and blessed by a loving God.
Song by Chris Rice
Every day is a journal page
Every man holds a quill and ink
And there’s plenty of room for writing in
All we do is believe and think
So will you compose a curse
Or will today bring the blessing
Fill the page with rhyming verse
Or some random sketching
Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
That somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much
Every day is a bank account
And time is our currency
So nobody’s rich, nobody’s poor
We get twenty-four hours each
So how are you gonna spend
Will you invest, or squander
Try to get ahead
Or help someone who’s under
Teach us to count the days
Teach us to make the days count
Lead us in better ways
That somehow our souls forgot
Life means so much
Every day is a gift you’ve been given
Make the most of the time, every minute you’re living
Happy New Year from Granny Hat. Thank you for reading, commenting and taking another journey around the sun with me.
Granny Hat 