The new year is always a good time to reflect, a time for evaluation, assessment, inventory, and criticism—not the destructive kind of criticism that pulls things and people down but the kind that asks if adjustments, corrections, and additions need to be made.  Such reflection does not have to ruin.  It has the potential to be part of a renewal.

In our families this new-year practice always includes a look at our spending—how are we spending our time, our energy, our money.  We only have so much of these valuable resources so we must spend wisely. I hope that you will go through this annual exercise with a prayer—or with lots of prayer.  Pray for wisdom and guidance. Pray for courage to make right choices, pray for God’s provision in all of these areas, not just in your wallet. And remember that if you belong to him—if you give him everything, then what you need, as well as, what you have really belong to him.