Already in Love with 2017

I am already in love with 2017. Not because, three hours into the new year, anything particularly marvelous has happened to influence my opinion or outlook already (though I did toast my family and some good friends with a very tasty apple-pomegranate sparkling cider) or because I'm one of those who figures 2016 was so bad that anything else has gotta be better. It's true that my year last year did have some major pits, potholes, and pathetic and perplexing problems; I'm certain I cried more in the past year than I've cried my entire life. But it's also true that there were moments of great clarity, times when I was supported and sustained by friends both in Heaven and on Earth, and the blessings were too many to count. No, I am in love with 2017 because I hope and have faith.

Many people hope when a new year rolls around, if they haven't become too hard and cynical anyway. It's what people hope that varies. I honestly don't know how anyone can hope without faith, and I do mean faith in a Father in Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. Sure, people can have faith in loved ones or financial institutions or themselves, or whatever else, but all of those things are subject to the faults and frailties of the mortal condition. I have hope and faith because time and again my Heavenly Father has brought me to and through things--strengthened and taught and directed me--and time and again I have marveled at how He never gives up on me, even when I feel I might as well give up on myself. I know He hears and answers my prayers--every one, spoken and unspoken--down to the tiniest of details. And at the beginning of this new year I have the most hope ever in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The year 2016 really was the Year of the Atonement for me, as I saw firsthand the fruits of it in people's lives and saw the unmistakable and undeniable change in these people. In different places and through various ways I felt an incredible witness of the truth and power of the Atonement. I am not perfect. Uh, not even close. But I can look back over the last year and see improvement and it makes me giddy with anticipation at how I can change and become this next year with God's grace.  I am certain there are going to be some really bad days in 2017. Lots of tears. Pain. Grief. Regret. I won't accomplish half of what I want, I won't change quite as much as I'd like, I'll probably take one step back for every two steps forward. But I stand at the doorway of the new year, glad to be alive and able to think, choose, and change and looking forward with hope and faith.