I love the new years. I love the idea of a new beginning. I am a dreamer and so I always have such hopes for each year, as well as reflect on all the amazing and wonderful things that happened throughout the past year. This past year has been amazing, I have learned so much and have just seen the way God works in such amazing and beautiful ways. Each life really is a masterpiece in His hands and seeing it in this way is truly beautiful. But as I begin this New Year, and start back at school, I can’t help but set goals for how I want to begin living more fully. As this past year came to a close I really struggled with God’s love and what it means to love Him back, so as I begin this new year, I want to make this my mission, and so far it seems as if God had everything already set up. My church is doing this read the bible in one year, and my interim class is called “Praying like Jesus,” and so naturally I am super excited to embark on this journey of getting to know my savior more deeply. I think the only way I can truly live my life is out of pure love for Him. I can’t live it without Him, or even out of gratitude to Him. I can’t live it in terms of what would Jesus do, or what does it look like to truly live a Christian life. These are all questions that are based in what should I do, not what do I  want to do, and so they must become questions of the past. I want to want and desire God. I mean I think it’s what He wants of us too. He wants us to choose Him above all, not pick Him because we should. And so my new questions are, first, what is preventing me from truly loving my savior, and then next is what can I do to change that. As I reflect on all that I truly love, it’s the people closest to me that come to mind, and I think this is because I spend so much time with them. So I believe the key to falling in love with God is by spending a lot of time with Him. Then, after I come to this place I will begin letting my life flow from that love. I will begin living for Him not because I should, but because I want to.

 When I first started out with this love fearlessly idea, I had a different picture of love, but now this phrase takes on a whole new meaning. There really is no fear in love. I guess love is blinding in a way, you can’t see clearly since you are so consumed in your feelings for the other. Maybe that’s why “radical Christians” can do such extreme things in our eyes. From the outside they look crazy, but really they are just in love. Maybe not, but at any rate, that is what I want for my life. And so my new goal is to learn more about my savior, and spend more time with Him, in hopes of falling for Him. I want a life so consumed by my love for Him that nothing else really matters. I have no clue what this new year will bring, but if it results in getting even a little closer to my savior, and opening my heart up to Him even just a tad more, I know it will be just wonderful!!