How’s your January going, achievers? Have you heard the slogan New Year: New You? Have you felt like you needed to organize your house while all the storage bins are on sale? Are you dieting? Are you trying to start exercising? Are you paying down debt or trying to pray more? What have you assigned yourself to change?

Maybe you’re IN IT and feeling momentum and it’s exciting. If so, awesome. I hope you enjoy the progress you make and feel benefits for a long time to come. I hope you celebrate every victory and bask in the glory of moments when you feel alive, when the closet is tidy or saying no to a spontaneous purchase makes you feel free.

Also, when the energy runs out and you’re not able to produce, I hope you know you still shine. I pray you’ll still feel good about you.

You have nothing to prove this January or in 2022 or in this decade. You are always good because your Author is good. God held up Their plans for you and smiled. “This is gonna be good.” They tucked you in somebody’s womb and felt antsy for the people to discover the surprises of you. When someone first noticed your weird sense of humor, God clapped and said, “That’s one of my favorite things about her.” You’re God’s dream come true and They don’t want anything fundamental about you to change.

So new year: new you? No.

May you have the grace not to kick yourself to the curb in pursuit of some new version and know deep inside that the same you God has always loved.                            Psalm 139:13-14