Culture tells us that a New Year and a New You means eating better, exercise harder, drink more water, expand your circle of friends. . . all of these things are wonderful but they answer cultures method to “New Year New You”—which is from the outside in.

Jesus works from the Inside Out.

As a mom of three, my greatest desire is to connect the hearts of my kids with the reality of God’s Truth—Ultimately, having them be independent from us, their mom and dad, and dependent on Him.  But sometimes it’s just plain challenging.

Maggie, our youngest,  just finished her basketball game over the weekend. They won. But after the game, one of the girls of the other team walked up to her and said a whole bunch of explicit words to her. When she told me what she said, in my head I was thinking of comebacks like “hey, do you really think you should talk like that when you look the way you do?” or “have you checked out the score up there?”  But then Maggie finished her story by telling me she didn’t say anything to her, and just walked away.

Wow. I wanted to pretend those thoughts never ran through my head—you know the incredibly immature and completely inappropriate ones—what’s the matter with me?

I’m so thankful God used this little (but huge) moment to remind Maggie that He is alive in her and working. I’m also grateful God can use a sixth grader to work on my insides