Every Good Path
Snow flurries out the window. Baby at my feet. Beef roast in the slow cooker with brown sugar and red wine vinegar. The coffee’s hot, of course. The new year has arrived without much ado in our household. It feels really good to welcome it without the strictness that I normally would have. (Remember I said I was letting go of my maximalist tendencies?) The house wasn’t perfectly cleaned, we didn’t eat any fun new years eve snacks. I didn’t have a fresh journal to crack open on new year’s day, I just continued on in my current one. I didn’t take the Christmas tree down to symbolize a fresh start. There are pine needles on the floor and dishes in the sink.
I feel very strongly that winter is not the time for I can do better and eating a salad, it is the time for tucking in and savoring. For serving bread and butter at dinner and baking a chocolate cake just because! I have mentioned my desire to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas…my little fight against our consumer culture’s need to constantly rush to the next thing. And the past few years I have been honoring those days more so with a nod rather than action. This year was our first Christmas with a baby and I’m sure many of you know that means a lot of gifts so by the time we got everything home I started to feel suffocated. Not only by the clutter under the tree, but also the spare bedroom that has acted as a catch-all, the pantry room in the basement that needed restocked and mice-proofed, and every unorganized corner started to take up space in my mind.
And so as I spent $80 on plastic bins to organize my clutter (gosh, that’s so American right? Why are we like this?) and restocked my pantry, rearranged closets, and sorted donate/return/sell piles— I resolved to do all of this in November next year so that the weeks after Christmas Day can feel like a true continued celebration. It will be easier to do when the kids are grown and more aware of each tradition. Baby boy just turned 5 months but next year his little feet will be pattering around the house and his chubby hands grabbing ornaments off the tree and will maybe be interested when I explain why we put up lights and use evergreens to decorate.
In the few moments I have to think straight I have been pondering the new year hardly in terms of goals. Of course I want to be a softer and gentler wife and mother. Of course I want to read my Bible and be much more in prayer. Of course I want to spend less time on my phone. Of course I want to get outside more. These are not desires unique to the turn of the calendar. But in this season of life it’s easier for me to think in terms of culture. What kind of home culture do I want to cultivate? And what are the small, actionable changes that will get me there? I’m talking small. Things that can hardly be considered goals. Cloth napkins and candles with dinner every night. A second cup of coffee without guilt. Learning the lyrics to more hymns to sing to baby.
“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path…” Proverbs 2:6-9
Every good path. Every good path means another load of laundry and another sink full of dishes. It means messy underlines in my Bible as I do my devotions with a baby in my lap. Every good path of repentance, forgiveness, softness, hopefulness, endurance…
May 2025 be full of every good path.
