2024 is the first year since getting married and moving to Arizona back in 2010 that I didn’t post on my blog all year long. Even as we’ve all joked for years that “blogs are dead,” I quietly took pride in the fact that I still wrote on mine at least a few times a year. Yes, readership is down. Yes, the smartphone “ruined” the medium. But I didn’t care. In one sense, I blog for others — the readers. But in another sense, I blog for me — an archive of the moments and memories of my entire marriage and all my years of motherhood.
As this past fall arrived, I began pondering my blog. Should I keep it? It turns out I actually pay to host this space online and when the bill arrives each year – obtrusively, in the middle of Christmas shopping season when I am not looking to spend extra money – I wonder if I should sign up for another year. Should I pay $100 to write nothing? Should I invest $100 and write something? Usually, in my state of indecision, I get auto-billed and the blog survives another year.
While I haven’t been blogging, I have been writing… micro-essays on Instagram from time-to-time, and longer form essays on my newsletter, The Truth Teller. I also created a College Guide to help Christian families find the right college. My fingers have produced no shortage of words over the past few years, but few of them have landed here.
I do feel a sense of nostalgia for my blogging days and for this space. A desire to craft short narratives and summaries that highlight the sweet parts of life for myself, my children, my family and friends, and anyone else who frolics on these pages.
Even writing these past few paragraphs has been refreshing. The words just tumble off my fingertips, and I don’t feel the need to think and rethink them, edit, and cite. They are just here. Fresh from my mind and my heart.
To start this renewed foray into blogging (maybe…), I thought I would share our 2024 Christmas letter. Our Christmas card is one of my favorite things to create and write each year, and I leave these words with you here, so that they might encourage you at the start of a new year.
I’ve been thinking recently of the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. You may be familiar with the story. A sower goes out to scatter some seed. Some falls on the path where it is quickly devoured by birds. Some falls on rocky ground, where it can’t grow deep roots and soon withers in the sun. Some of the seed grows for a while but eventually gets choked out by thorns. And some seed falls on fertile soil where it produces grain in abundance.
Jesus doesn’t explain all of his parables, but he does explain this one. The seed is the word of God. Some listen and dismiss it. The word is snatched by birds. Some enjoy the word but never grow deep roots. When trouble comes, they fall away. Some grow for a season, but eventually, the cares of this world choke out their faith. Then there are those who understand the word and spend their lives bearing abundant fruit for God.
Micah and I are in our 40s now. Our oldest child is a pre-teen. I’m asking, “How do we bear good fruit here and now?” Because life is full — Zianne and Talitha play volleyball and basketball, Eisley started piano, and Diletta is begging to try ballet. We are involved in church, the girls attend Awana, and we love spending time with our wonderful neighbors and other friends. Work keeps us busy by day and dinner and homework and laundry keep us busy by night. While I am grateful for the events that fill our schedule, I don’t want the cares of this world to choke out our faith. Lord, produce fruit in us, and help us to prepare the soil of our children’s hearts so that they may bear fruit as well.
And what is the fruit that God produces? He tells us. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the things of God, and we have access to them when we confess our sin and put our faith in Jesus — the one and only Savior of the world. Then his Spirit abides in us and produces fruit, just as the parable says. Love, joy, peace, and more – a hundredfold. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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