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New Year: New Hurts, New Hopes – Next Steps
Christmas time brings family together, and that’s a good thing.
As an old year closes and a new one opens, December celebrations hopefully leave us with rich and positive memories. Yet sometimes all the family togetherness also leaves us with disappointment or a new burden to bear.
Maybe you are reveling in some positive holiday afterglow. That’s good – soak it up. Family is one of the greatest joys because good relationships can reflect a foretaste of the Divine. At the same time, we aren’t in Heaven and therefore relational strain, “growth opportunities” and downright abusive situations must be faced.
One thing we notice in Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department through the nearly 1,500 counseling consultations we complete each month is this: New and perplexing issues arise for moms, dads, sons, daughters and spouses in December. We may tack on the smiles for the parties, but come January and February, the delayed effects of these hard realities or fresh holiday revelations begin to be faced. The first two months of the year are when our counseling call volumes typically increase.
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