Every New Years, it seems like people are making the same comments, "this year is my year", "new year, new me" and promising themselves the same resolutions: "I'm going to save money", "I'm going to work out so many times a week", "I'm going to eat healthy", "I'm going to lose weight". People make themselves the same promises day after day, month after month, year after year. But when they're pushed hard enough, all those promises end up broken on the floor.

A week after telling yourself "I'm going to go the gym this many times a week", you suddenly realize the gym has a striking resemblance to the local bar. And that "healthy diet" that you're on consists of a lot of cookies and brownies (Oh, I'm alone on this one? That's okay, I'll keep eating these Thin Mints from my freezer anyway). Flash back a year ago to New Year’s Eve, 2015. The only promise I made myself was "this year is God's year" and I vowed to pray on every decision, every situation, every moment.

For those Atheists and Agnostics who are actually still reading this, thank you for not clicking out as soon as I brought God up. I know a lot of people don't believe in God and it hurts my heart, but that’s their prerogative. My pastor challenged any non-believers last weekend by asking them to do one simple task before they go to sleep at night and as soon as they wake up in the morning; say aloud: "God, I don't know if you are there or not, but if you are- please give me a sign". Whether you aren’t sure God is real, or you believe He is some made-up man that lives in the sky, just humor me, it takes less than 10 seconds to say it.

Now, back to my point. Deciding to make 2016 God's year was the best decision of my life. I spent 6 months praying hard and praying often and God came through for me. He answered my prayers with blessings, He answered my prayers with denial and He answered my prayers with giving me patience. He isn't a God of "right now", He is a God of love, mercy and grace. He is a God of patience and redirection.

Just because your prayers aren't being answered immediately doesn't mean He isn't working on them. Maybe it isn't your time yet, and maybe He's protecting you from things you didn't know you needed to be protected from. Being Christian doesn't mean everything is perfect and good all the time; it is only in our darkest hours that we discover our true strength and the brilliant light within ourselves that can never be dimmed.

Since peace isn't the absence of trouble, but the presence of God, being Christian simply means you have peace in your heart and someone on your side through each battle. I don't know what lies ahead, and I don’t know what His plans are for my life, but I do know they are a whole lot better than anything I had planned!

I keep God first so everything else can fall behind and into the place He has for it. God sees something in you that you can't see in yourself. He loves each of His children and He wants us to be happy. I realized in 2016 that the best way to be happy is to be still and know that He has this figured out. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow; He will never leave or forsake you.

Once I realized this, my whole life changed. I spent 2016 living for God and being obedient to what He was telling me to do. Although it seems there was a lot of things that went wrong in 2016 and everyone seemed to hate the year, it was the best year of my life. It was a year of loss, but also a year of love. It was a year of sacrifice, but it was a year of blessings.

This is why I decided my only resolution in 2017 is to read the Bible daily, to fall on my knees and pray harder than I ever have before. My resolutions are to get closer to our Heavenly Father and live out the plan He has for me.

I pray for those reading this that 2017 is filled with enough joy to keep you hopeful, enough defeat to keep you humble and enough love to keep you loving.