Bring IN the New Year

December 29, 2025

2025 was a crazy eventful year. January 13th of 2025, we left for the Dominican Republic for 4 months of Spanish. We also got to know those who serve in the headquarters of the LAC region. For those that don’t know what LAC stands for it is Latin America and the Caribbean. Aka the region in which we are called to serve as missionaries. We got to Belize in May of 2025, and here we are still. Growing and adapting to what the Lord has in store.

None of that is what I am about to dive into though. That’s just a light recap for those who may be new here. Or for those who don’t know what our family is currently up to.

I wanted to share a word that I have been reflecting on a lot as of late. It’s a simple word really, it can come with many a connotation though. Biblically the word in can be some hefty glue that holds many important, life altering words together. Without even knowing it, my first time digging into, the word in really started with my last blog In(n).

Opening in Prayer

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Identity

Identity is a struggle on so many levels. Our personalities come out as babies and mold us as the years go by. What shapes our Identity? Too many things to count. Adolescence to young adulthood is a trying time in this department. We can be influenced to believe we are many things or could be many things. I can only try to explain it from my own experience. As this is what I know.

I have always been a person: who tries to see the best in everyone. Attempts to include everyone. I look for connection and love getting to know people. I am self-conscious but at the same time bold. Timid but adventurous. A lover of the outdoors, a lover of adrenalin, so on and so forth.

During the latter half of my adolescence to young adulthood my relationship with God wasn’t strong enough. I now believe that is because it wasn’t personal. I was a “Christian” I went to church; I did all the churchy things. But it was all surface level. I wasn’t rooted in the word of God. Therefore, the devil slipped through the cracks and a trying decade came from that.

Without Jesus / With Jesus

Without Jesus my Identity was tied up in the whispers of the world. All the above came with many unhealthy side effects. Some even damaging to who God meant for me to be. Yet during all that time astray, he never let me go. Hindsight, where we always see 20/20, I can still vividly recall each time he tried to call me back to him. Thankfully, He doesn’t give up!

With Jesus, our Identity is still the same. We don’t lose who we are, but we also have his light shining within us. He knew our identity before we were born (Psalms 139:13.) Living for all the people that God brings into our lives. We use our Identity to his glory because we are in Him. We are meant for community and belonging. I am rooted and established in love, the Love of Jesus Christ, and that is something meant to be shared (pause, go back to the beginning and read the prayer before continuing.)

In Him

Everything points back to the bible and who we are in Him, in Jesus.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In Love. (Eph 1:4)

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding. (Eph 1:7-8)

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Eph 2:21-22)

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with Freedom and confidence. (Eph 3:12)

Looking into the Future

I ask myself sometimes, what is the one thing I want our Children to truly grasp in this world? How Jason and I were gifted and entrusted with 4 beautiful beings, I’ll never know. We are ill equipped to Shepard them on our own. But, In Him (Jesus), we are the perfectly imperfect duo to lead these kids to adulthood (No pressure.)

That answer though, the one thing I want our children to truly grasp is everything is held in Jesus. Our literal gift of life is his to take at any moment. So how do we make it count while we are here. How do we thrive? Knowing Jesus for ourselves, who am I, and who am I if I don’t have Jesus?

For our Children

I want for our children to realize who they are as children of God and to not let their identity waver from that. My prayer is they become rooted in that Identity before the world tries to tell them who they are to be. Which is becoming increasingly harder each year.

At the end of this life, if our Children see that it is in him that we truly live and thrive, then we have done well! Jason has a leg up as a Pastor, he’s studied for this battle, he’s equipped to lead, and I, I am equipped to be his perfectly imperfect helpmate. I bring my life skills to the table, and a whole lot of “don’t do what I did.”