Dear January

Dear January,
There is something bothering me, and I feel like I need to get this off my chest. First let me say that January, I do love you! I love a new year! I appreciate the chance to start over every 365 days. I enjoy the fact that I can turn a new page and start over again. After last year, believe me, I want to do that. I need to do that! So yes, January, I do have affection for you.

Here's my problem - I feel as if we have put too much pressure on you. Yes, you are shiny and new. But with all the resolutions, the starting overs, the new diets, the workout equipment that is on every other commercial, and the "word for the year" stuff, I feel like we've made you into something you may not be. The pressure to have all of this decided on your very first day is a little much. I mean, we're still all eating and celebrating, right? (Or at least I was. Maybe it was just me.) And I feel as if we just did the Christmas thing. I mean, some of us don't even have our decorations all the way put up. Here in the South, we have been freezing to death. You came and brought us Canadian-like temperatures. We don't know how to handle that. We don't have the clothing for that! The flu is going around here like some kind of biblical plague. We're having it rough, January. The push to make life-changing decisions is too much for those of us who may have limped out of December.

So let's make a deal. What if we take the entire 31 days of you to seek God and see what He wants for this year? What if you pump the brakes a little bit on all of this "You have to decide RIGHT NOW" stuff and give us a chance to ease into this as God sees fit? After all, He is in control of this whole thing we call life. He orders every single day of this year. Yes, He may have seen fit to give some of us our "word for the year" before the dawning of January 1, 2018. But maybe He's still stirring things around in some of us. Maybe He is leading some of us to a new diet or lifestyle change, but maybe they can't do anything about it yet because He hasn't finished leading them to the right place. Or maybe some us have been stuck at home with a 4 year old who had his tonsils out on December 27, and we are really hyper-focused on that. (Okay, maybe that one IS just me.) Whatever the reason may be, can you just chill and let us let God show us the way instead of you bullying us into change?

Really, truly, I adore you January. I do. No joke. But right now, I need you to give me some grace.

Sincerely,
A Girl Who is Seeking the Lord