2024

2024 has arrived…

Did you change your Calendars?
Have you opened your 2024 Diary yet?
Did you pick your Word of the Year?
What about the Saint of the Year?
Did you sms all your contacts or at least put that general “Happy New Year” message on your Social Media?
Did you embarked for your Holidays already? Or maybe you are back now?

Not long from today school will start, your children would get dress with brand new uniform -or not- and head out to the brand new class with a new Teacher. Everything seems new and different but really, everything is the same.

2024 doesn’t promise anything to you or me. It is not the year. It is not the month or the day. God has said that we do not need to worry about tomorrow, and that His timing is perfect…

Every year I say the same thing to myself and in here: nothing changes just because of a digit. Resolutions can be broken and picked up again and broken again… it is with our will that we would achieve things…but only if our will is aligned to His.

So maybe instead of putting pressure on yourself, on your children, on your husband or wife, on your family or friends… maybe instead of stressing out about ticking boxes in your Calendar, or writing down 100 goals , maybe we should just surrender ourselves, our families and our lives to the Almighty Father who loves us and has accompanied us every single day of our lives and will continue to do so.

He promises us that He is with us everyday until the end of times (Matthew 28:20).

He promises us that we are a new creation in HIM. (2 Corinthians 5:17). Not in the New Year. Not in the Monday Resolutions… but in HIM.

Seek HIM and everything else will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

He has asked us to clothe ourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-23)

We are made NEW in HIM.

This New Year 2024 is nothing major. There is nothing magnificent about it… except if we offer it to God, if we put OUR lives at His Service, if we Consecrate our Hearts to Him, if we offer all our sacrifices to Him. You see? As Catholic, it is all about HIM. Not you, not me, not the Calendar, nor the digit changing, nor the plans we have, nor the Birthdays we will plan, nor the Resolutions we wrote, nor the goals we want to achieve… This new journey is about walking with Him to get to Heaven. That is the goal.

How can we do this?

It is quite simple but also hard. We need to trust Him keeping all the Sacraments close to our hearts: Confession, Eucharist as often as we can. Celebrate Mass. Offer Sacrifices for all those who are suffering.

The Bible gives us a key in Proverbs 3:5-6… one of my favourite quotes:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

And if you trust… “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7.

The Peace of God… which has no human logic because passes ALL understanding WILL keep your mind and your heart in Jesus Christ…

This is all we need for 2024: His Peace in Our Hearts… by prayer.

So if you need a Resolution for the New Year, let it be that: to Pray… to always and constantly Pray.

May you and your family have a blessed 2024!

Love,

Liza, a Maronite Mum

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Bible Quotes:

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20.

“Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” Matthee 6:33.

“You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-23

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©2024 by Maronite Mum