I would like to wish all of our dear homeschool friends a heartfelt “Happy New Year” from my family and the team here at CHEC. I am thankful that God is granting us another year to serve your family and I am excited about what God has in store!

For many people, the New Year’s happiness fizzles out along with the facade of parties and New Year’s resolutions. Not so with you and me, I pray. Our joyful aspirations for the New Year are not founded on parties, high hopes, and self-helps. Rather, our first reason for happiness is that we trust in a faithful, promise-keeping God, who has taken care of us like a kind shepherd, moment-by-moment, year-after-year.

Have you looked back recently to recount His faithfulness to you and your family? It is an exercise that we should do often because we are so prone to forget the mighty works of God in our lives.

As I think about all that has happened during the last year in the life of CHEC, I can see the hand of our faithful God in so many ways. My heart is also encouraged as I survey all that God has done in and through the homeschool movement during the last 40 years, as well as the last 25 years of CHEC’s ministry here in Colorado. You can read more about that in our 2015 End of Year Letter.

It’s great to get excited about goals and plans for the New Year. In fact, we’ve got some pretty big plans in store for CHEC this year that we are excited about. That said, our cause for happiness in the New Year is ultimately rooted in our faith and confidence in God, which is bolstered by what we have seen Him do in the past.

Another reason why we are truly happy about a new year is that the Christian life involves continual renewal that is powered by the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 4:16 says, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward [man] is renewed day by day.” You can be sure that fitness gyms across the country will be filled to the brim this month as people work on some “outward man” renewal as best they can. While it might not hurt a few of us to hop on the treadmill, physical renewal is only temporary and skin deep.

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time during the last few days holding our precious little Jewel Mary Craig; she was born just a few days before Christmas. I am reminded again of the miracle and beauty of new life. But no matter how breathtaking it is to hold a newborn in your arms, new spiritual life and spiritual renewal are a thousand times more precious. And that is why we homeschool. We disciple our children so they may experience the joy of change from the inside out, which comes about only through belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

This gives us real cause for joy in the New Year. No matter how well your exercise plans go, the Holy Spirit’s “inside man” fitness program is sure to put some real happiness in your new year.

And so from all of us here at CHEC, we wish you and your family all of the happiness in the New Year that comes from knowing and growing together in Christ and being renewed in the inner man!

Happy New Year!

Steve Craig

P.S. Don’t forget to put CHEC on your prayer list. For a reminder about how you can pray for CHEC, click here.

About the Author: Steve Craig

Steve serves as the executive director for CHEC. He lives with his wife Tara and their four children in Parker, Colorado. Read more about Steve here.