And just like that, it’s a new year. It came so fast! There’s something about facing down a new year, an empty calendar filled with nothing but expectancy and hope, that’s so exciting. We had a great time celebrating the holidays as a family, and we enjoyed our New Year’s Eve tradition of making gratitude journals for this new year. (We used these journals this year.)

Gratitude Journals

On New Year’s Eve, we cracked open our gratitude journals from last year and spent a few minutes looking back on God’s goodness in 2025. It’s also our tradition to look through pictures on Matt’s phone of the year; it helps us to remember all the good that took place. We write down the highlights of the year in our gratitude journals.

Sometimes, we get so bogged down by the negative that we don’t see God’s goodness. But we can use times like a new year to look back and find the good. When we do, we will be able to trace God’s hand all throughout the year in both the good and the bad. Then, after that, we spent a few minutes writing down our goals for this new year.

Tracing God’s Hand

If you haven’t had time to look back on last year, I want to encourage you to do so. Even just a few minutes remembering God’s goodness can change our entire look going into the new year. And whether you like to set goals or not, at least write down one or two things you want to see God do in your life this year. Then use your notebook all year to write down the good things that God does. It’s such an amazing thing to be able to look back at the end of the year and be able to trace God’s hand of goodness all year long.

More Encouragement

If you live this idea, check out my post on making gratitude journals.