Here's to 2020

Today is the first day of the new year: January 1, 2020.

My Pastor at my church, this morning, put a lot of perspective into how fast time goes by. He was reminiscing about when he was in high school in the ‘70s. Back then he wondered what it would be like in the year 1990! And he also brought up Y2K. That was 20 years ago! Can you believe it? All of the media attention that it got and all of the things that we were panicking and preparing for. Do you remember?

My Pastor called us to reflect on a few things about 2019. He asked: What were the joys and sufferings of 2019? How did God lead us and help us and sustain us and give us successes, or even help us through heartbreaking difficulties? Then he said to leave those in the past and move into 2020.

As soon as he asked everyone those questions, I started thinking about my answers. They came easily. I thought about them even more on the way home from church. I had to be honest with myself, and I didn’t like it.

Last year was a tough year for my wife and me for many reasons. She was having a lot of health problems. There were a lot of doctor's appointments and treatments. There were some treatments that were absolutely terrible for her and I felt helpless, trying to take care of her.

There was a scary time where we thought she was going to lose all of her treatments because of something that one doctor said and did. It created a lot of anxiety for us. We came to a low point after that, especially toward the end of the year when we had some issues with a case manager. God has sustained us even through the worst times of 2019 though, and I will never forget that.

Last year, I became my wife’s full-time caregiver (actually it’s been almost a year now, WOW). I am thankful that I have been able to stay home with her and be at every appointment with her and go through everything with her.

I haven’t been the best version of me for Candace over the last year. I have been stuck in my selfishness and this is something I am going to work on this year especially. I am going to get back to basics: I am going to pray every day, by myself and with her, do some Bible study every day, and be the person my wife met over 3 years ago. I was on fire for the Lord when we met, and over time I have lost it, and I need to get it back. I need my heart and mind in the right place.

God lead me by allowing me to start a business doing something I am passionate about and which allows me to help others. I did lots of editing of different genres and helped a friend publish her book. I also published a Rosary Prayer Book to help people learn how to pray the Rosary. I hope that my business will continue to grow and that he will allow me to keep helping people, and continue to bless me with success.

Everybody has heard it at some point in their lives: Life is too short. We’ve also heard that we need to make sure to tell everyone we love them as often as we can because we just never know what is going to happen. We can’t live our lives in the past, and we can’t live with regrets. We need to remember to thank God for each day he lets you wake up in the morning.

Here’s to a great year!

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Visit my website at www.kristinehutchinson.com for any updates on current projects, as well as a link to get your own copy of my Rosary Prayer Book.