How often do you visit your habits and behaviors?

It’s a good practice to examine them daily, and even better to set aside intentional time before the beginning of a new year. Our habits and behavior are shaped by our convictions. A conviction is, “a firmly held belief or opinion.” Our belief system drives our thought, choices and plans.

Sixteen years ago, my husband and I embarked on an adventure with God when my husband said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Our new conviction was simple but seismic: God is real and can be trusted. He was calling us to move from comfort and convenience to trust and obedience.

Yesterday we were given the gift of spending the final hours of 2025 being still, dwelling with God alongside a seasoned saint of Jesus Christ who asked us thoughtful and probing questions. “A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out” (Proverbs 20:5). This gentleman drew out living water in us. As we shared our stones of remembrances, the many ways God had been faithful, even before we acknowledged His existence, something awakened again.

A revival stirred in our hearts, reminding us of convictions we hold dear:

• Our lives are not our own.
• Everything we have is not ours.
• We are stewards.
• This world is not our home.

We must stay the course and remain obedient to the daily assignments of God.

This post-it note and prayer card from my husband, written almost sixteen years ago, is a treasure to me. It serves as a quiet but powerful reminder that we are still walking on the path of righteousness for God’s namesake.

When we first moved here, someone once said, “I used to be on fire for Jesus Christ like you, but it will fade.” That comment used to haunt me. Now I understand how it can fade, if we do not dwell daily with the Lord. Without time in His word, confession and repentance, we begin operating in our own strength. Weariness sets in.

This world is dark, demanding and discouraging. If we’re not careful those conditions can cloud the place where our convictions live. We begin to hear the voice, “Did God really say?” Doubt creeps in about God’s faithfulness, His presence and even His existence. Left unchecked and un-exchanged for Truth, we can become forgetful hearers, living in quiet delusion.

May we be people who revisit and revive our convictions daily so that we are not only hearers of God’s word but doers of it. May 2026 be a year of GROWING in the Grace and Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The best is yet to come.