This morning I was deciding what I wanted to share with the world about all the adventures of last year and my hopes for the new year. So much happened last year… I got engaged and then married to the love of my life, and this was a year full of all of the events I’ve been dreaming about since I was small. Not to mention, my art’s taken some pretty significant steps this year and the future with my business is looking so hopeful, like I can see my goals coming to life within the next two years. 2022 was a year of significant direction for me professionally, personally, and spiritually, and I felt like the Lord was walking with me through some of the biggest decisions of my life.

And for the first time in my life, I sat on our bed on New Year’s Eve after our friends were all gone and I cried my eyes out because I never in my life thought I would have a New Year’s Day where I wasn’t begging Jesus to be married. I have never considered a dream after this dream, never once considered what I would want to do when I was living in the marriage and not praying daily for it to happen. And as I was thinking of what I wanted to ask God to do in my life this year, a specific verse came to mind.

“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him… He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

Psalm 147:1,3-5

The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Though last year was absolutely amazing, my prayer for this year is that the Lord would help heal the broken places in me. I’ve carried so much weight for so long, everything from the abuse that happened to me over the years to the grief of missing my dad, along with family brokenness that I can’t see how God can put back together. I’ve seen the end of some friendships that I know were healthy breaks but still hurt, some friendships that I’m praying for direction on as I navigate deep wounds, and some friendships that ended but I want to rekindle and don’t know how. I’ve been so heavy, so angry, so disappointed, even as I’ve lived the most beautiful year of my life to date. It’s like I’ve been walking through the past few years on broken glass trying to just suck it up, instead of taking the time to understand why I’m hurting and letting the Good Doctor bandage my wounds so I can walk through life with the joy and thankfulness the Lord offers me.

Friends, Jesus didn’t give His life for us so we would walk through life on hypothetical broken glass. He came to offer us fullness of joy in Him. He came so that we would have Oneness with Him and the fruits of the Spirit that come with His presence in our lives. He came that we would live our lives rooted in Him, being transformed by His Word and walking in forgiveness, grace, kindness, compassion, patience, and gentleness.

So, this year I’ll be praying for the Lord to Doctor my wounds and draw me near. And I’ll be praying over you, too, that we learn to walk in the healing and lightness of heart that comes from full trust in the Lord and grace for others.

All my love,

Whitney Lynne Robinson