The Song of Your Heart

“Sing to the Lord with grateful praise.”  Psalm 147:7

The Christmas music has ended (Why don’t we play it all year?), and now we begin to reflect upon this past year and ponder what the new year will bring.  We remember the joys and the sorrows, the losses and the achievements, the struggles and the accomplishments.  It has been a mixture of emotions and changes.  Each year brings challenges and opportunities of growth.  We have released loved ones to Heaven and we gained new relationships.  Some of you set resolutions for 2025 and you may not even remember what they were because daily life got in the way.  Some of you achieved your goals.

 What songs did your heart and soul sing this year?  Were they songs of sadness and grief?  Songs of pain and fear?  Songs of joy and celebration?  Songs of hope and peace?  I listen to music every day, usually on Sirius radio in my vehicle or on my phone through a speaker.  I mainly listen to Southern Gospel, Contemporary Worship, Country with a few other random songs.  I listen to piano instrumental music all night long. Music has been my way of giving expression to my feelings and also bringing hope and peace into my heart.  It brings a calmness and a focus.

In 2026, I want to sing with a grateful heart.  For the past ten years, I have chosen a word for the year.  The word has helped me focus, pray, grow and challenged me to live in this different life.  I have used the word to guide my prayers, and the word has helped me find songs that have touched my spirit and given me encouragement.

For 2026, God has given me the word “grateful.”  Grateful is a feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness.  Grateful is a mindset, a choosing to see the good.  Thankful is a reaction to something specific like “I am thankful for sunshine today.”  Grateful is a positive outlook that sees the good and knows God is good even when I cannot see it.  It is being grateful God is with me.  Grateful God is in it with me.  Grateful for the blessings and the struggles.

My hope for 2026 is that the song of gratefulness will be in my heart.  What song is in your heart? I challenge you to spend time with God to find the word you need to help guide you in this new year.  Resolutions are easy to break and sometimes too overwhelming to achieve.  Don’t set yourself up for failure and eventually guilt.  Let’s simplify the way we set resolutions and goals for the new year.  Why not choose a word?  Find scriptures and songs that will fill your heart and help you focus and grow in the new year.

For me, I am going to go into the new year focused on being grateful – to be grateful for the relationships and experiences God places on my path.  I am going to sing with a grateful heart and find songs that express gratefulness.  My ears will be tuned to hear the words of the songs and discern how it expresses gratefulness.

I am grateful for each one of you that reads my blogs and newspaper columns.  I will be combining the two sometimes in the next months.  The blog will expand on the newspaper column theme.  I am grateful for those of you who also read and share my books.  Most of all I am grateful for Jesus, my Lord and Savior, and the gift of His grace and forgiveness.

Our hearts will have lots of things trying to win our attention in the new year.  Make room in your heart for God’s song.  Casting Crowns have a song – “Room In Your Heart” –

 “Is there room in your heart, Is there room in your heart, Is there room in your heart for God to write His story?”

God has a story to write for 2026. Make room in your heart for Jesus.