Here’s your New Year’s blessing from this book I love, The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp:

There was what an Orthodox Hasidic rabbi had said on a flight westward. He’d put his prayer shawl in the overhead compartment and sat down, sweeping aside the tassels dangling from his pockets. And somewhere over the mountains, the light thick above the clouds, the rabbi turned to me, mid-conversation, “Why do you people always say it’s about having a strong belief in God? Who sits with the knowing that God’s belief in you is even stronger than yours in Him?”

I’d put down my Styrofoam cup of black coffee and tried to read the rabbi’s face. He’d leaned forward in his seat and tilted his head so he could look at me directly. “You may believe in God, but never forget—it’s God who believes in you.”

He looked out the window and pointed, “Every morning that the sun rises and you get to rise. That’s God saying He believes in you, that He believes in the story He’s writing through you. He believes in you as a gift the world needs.”

God’s mercies are new every morning—not as an obligation to you, but as an affirmation of you. pp 82-83

Happy New Year to you, brave one. This is your starting point for today and for this new year. God believes in the story He’s writing through you.

Continue on in your journey of bravery. Face the vulnerable “opportunities.” Continue to end the numbing habits. Do not fear your broken-heart. Practice gratitude. Find the Plan B of your pain. Depend on the dependency of prayer.

Because worthiness is your birthright.

(Photo credit:  http://www.divyaparekh.com/2012/12/to-a-joyous-new-year-and-possibilities/)