Annie F. Downs
About the Author

Annie F. Downs is a bestselling author and nationally known speaker based in Nashville, Tennessee. Her most recent books include 100 Days to Brave, Looking for Lovely and Let’s All Be Brave. Read more at anniefdowns.com and follow her at @anniefdowns.

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
Recent Posts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Annie,
    I am hoping to begin a new marriage (a second marriage) in one week that will glorify God. I am looking forward with hopeful anticipation to giving of myself 110% and loving, arms wide open. I am hopeful about being loved and cherished by a godly man in an abuse-free relationship. I am hopeful about experiencing daily joy. Like you, I am choosing to be content and ridiculously hopeful. Praying your hopes will come true!!
    Blessings,
    Bev

    • Congratulations Bev! I pray for your marriage next week, that as you begin your married life together, God will always be at the center. God bless you both.

    • Bev,

      Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Prayers for this marriage to be Godly and last the rest of your lives. Keep God first and pray together!

      God Bless! 🙂

  2. I am hopeful that the new year brings peace and safety to me and my children. At age 50 I am leaving my abusive marriage. It’s hard and scary sometimes, but I have hope. I want to live and raise my children believing God has our backs, and we can allow his grace to guide us. I have hope that this year I will live this belief every day.

  3. Praying for you And your children Shelly!

    I am hopeful that this year we will conceive this child we have been praying so long for. I am hopeful that this is the year we will be able to start the family our hearts desire.

  4. These are great words! I know I get caught up in trying to be “content”, but it frequently feels like giving up. It’s a hard balance to find. Thanks for your wise words!

  5. “Hope is being sure that we serve a God who CAN. We serve a God who DOES. And we serve a God who KNOWS. And watching to see how He does it all.”

    I LOVE THAT!

  6. I’m so glad you wrote this. The message of hope has been on my heart…I’ve let disappointments push me into this “don’t dream or expect too much” and “just be content” mode that ends up feeding into fear of doing something different or hoping for more. Hoping in some big things this year with you!

  7. I have been reflecting recently about this very same thing. At some point in this very difficult year, I stopped dreaming. It is so easy after heartbreak or disappointment to hope again. I thought that if I dreamed or hope for something I would just experience disappointment again. What does this say about what I believe about God? ALOT! Thanks for your encouragement and inspiring words. It helps to know that I am not alone and that someone can articulate what I am feeling!

  8. I love the word hope and everything it embodies. Here are some texts about hope (thanks Bible Gateway!)

    Psalm 25:5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.

    Psalm 33:20-22 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

    Psalm 119: 73-74 Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word.

    Isaiah 40: 30-31 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

    Romans 15: 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

  9. My hope is that God will heal my sick cat (he seems to be suffering from depression after being sick), that God is going to answer our prayer for our forever home, and that we are going to have everything worked out with our children’s schooling issues. God does answer prayers, He does give us hope and we don’t ever have to give up on dreams! He showed me last year that He is always there through every storm.

  10. I love this so much! Thank you for your encouragement, I love the idea of a dance between contentment and hope and how both are possible.

  11. Wow, Annie, you nailed it! I had placed content and hopeless in the same folder and didn’t know it. I was calling myself content with how things were in my marriage, but I knew I really wasn’t. What I didn’t know was that I was resigned and hopeless. Thank you for giving me those words of understanding.

    Circumstances earlier this year forced me to confront my husband and my resignation. Guess what? My marriage wasn’t hopeless as I had thought. God, full of mercy and grace, began the process of redemption for what I had considered hopeless. I found that as I put my hope in Him, trusting the work of His grace and mercy in my husband, true contentment emerged even before issues were resolved. God truly is the Source of hope.

  12. Annie. Thank you for your encouraging & inspiring words. Hope & contentment. I am being hopeful this will be a better year, financially, physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, & community. Agreeing in prayer for all of my sisters also. God is good & He has good for His kids & we be His kids. My Hope & trust is in HIM!
    Blessings~

  13. Everywhere I turn God is placing the word “HOPE”. I had begun to equate hope and contentment due to my ongoing marriage difficulties. But God CAN. So I will choose to hope in Him…not in my circumstances. Thanks for this reflection.

  14. I just want my husband and me to go to a marriage retreat. I have always wanted to because I’m a romantic, (married on Valentines day and had a heart shaped engagement ring and God showed it was with His blessing, have a heart shape snowflake in going away pictures!) But right now, it looks like we’re not going. It’s in March, but deadline for money to be in is end of January, and it’s not even the money part. It’s the husband. He’s very reserved and hates going anywhere away from home. I want it to be something he wants, so I’m praying for God to change his heart.

  15. Can’t tell you how true this rings. Hope is risky. It costs something. And because of that–especially when the delay of that hope causes the risk to feel too high, too painful–it’s almost easier to settle for less. Except that we can’t. Not really. Not when that hope is tied to a dream. I sowed many hopeful tears for the last two years into a novel I’ve written. This year, I’m choosing to keep standing in hope that it will be published. Thanks for the encouragement.

    • Good words, Crystal. Thank you for sharing! Hoping with you for a “novel” year. (I’m so annoying… sorry… just couldn’t resist.) 🙂

  16. My hope for this year is simply that there will be peace, comfort and joy for all that in despair.

    blessings to all for a blessed 2014,

    Penny

  17. Bev Duncan – your words touched me deeply. I am praying that you are blessed beyond measure and that God fulfills his promise to restore the last years to you. I’ve been married for eight months this past Monday to the man I’d prayed for and dreamed of for 35 years. I lived 12 years in a horribly abusive marriage before that. Congratulations to you!!

    This year I am being bold and hoping for a baby with my husband. I’m also hoping for my almost seven year old daughter to outgrow some of her four dozen allergies. It’s frightening to admit the deepest desires of my heart, but this post encouraged me.

  18. I am hopeful that God will be glorified through my blog. That it will grow as HE sees fit.

    Thanks for this post–just what I needed to hear!

  19. “Hope” is my word for 2014. My son Jered passed away at the age of 30 five years ago. Life has been painful with me questioning every thing in my life. Your words encourage me, and I wrote some of them in my journal this morning. Thank you for your words of hope!

  20. Thank you Annie. This post spoke to me. So true.
    I am hopeful that God will place me in a job that I love where I can glorify Him and help to make the ends meet here. “Ends meeting” is also a hope. God is so good!

  21. I’m an easily contented person. Hope. I just fix my eyes literally on JESUS. This year is going to be a far out year. A greater and better year. I can feel it already.
    🙂

  22. I am hopeful that this year I will be less and God will be more! I just want God to meet me where I am everyday and keep me focused on Him and His plan in my life , instead of on me and the things that are going on around me. God sure is faithful and He loves to lavish His faithful followers, so this year I will hope to be less so that He can be more.

  23. I am hoping for my husband’s business to gain a bit more solid footing – and the most immediate hope is that we find another massage therapist to share the monthly rent for his room space in the medical building. God is faithful, and I know that Romans 8:28 will hold true yet again.

  24. ANNIE. This is big. This is important. And good. AND HARD. Please tell me you’re going to write more about this. Or just counsel me in private. Whatevs. 😉

  25. Aaaaahhhhhh!!!!! I JUST posted my word for 2014 on my blog FB page. Can you guess what it was?!? Hope.

    Thank you for this word. This light. This affirmation. (Especially for the imagery of “dancing with both words…” Loved that.) There is so much I hope for in 2014. Healing. Parenting wisdom. Growth. And especially the realization and fruition of a God-sized dream several years in the making. Your posts always resonate with me, Annie. Thank you for listening to His call. “To 2014. The year we hoped.”

  26. Thank you, Annie. I so needed this. I, too have made that mistake of interchanging contentment with hopelessness. I’ve been married 34 years and my life has not turned out to be the life I prayed for and envisioned all those years. I was lost a lot of the time last year trying to figure it all out and asking God “why???”. But in all that, He HAS SUSTAINED me and has given me hope and assurance that He will continue to pour out unexpected blessings on me as He works out His purpose in my life. Thanks for helping me to recognize that there is certainly a huge difference between the two, contentment and hopelessness. God is not anywhere to be found in the latter but He is the the author of the former. I’m looking forward to the future and seeing where He’s going to take me even though it’s all unfamiliar territory. Your blog will stay tucked in my heart, God bless you for sharing it.

  27. Hello! I have been hoping for 2 months to sell our house and find a home closer to family and friends. I know that it is all in God’s timing, but we have watched house upon house diappear from our grasp, because out house, cute I may add, has not sold! Is is a sign? I am beginning to feel hopeless, I have not been happy in the area we live in in years, we have very few friends, none to really hang with, I have been burned by many from our church……………all I have is hope, I do not want to be content here in this place, is that wrong?
    Ellie

  28. Can’t believe I’m going to write this, but I’m hoping my boyfriend and I will get engaged (and then married, ha) this year.

    Ahh that’s hard to type. Thanks for leading with vulnerability Annie.

  29. Annie,
    Your words struck a resonating chord with me today — thanks for sharing this amazing truth that God sees our hope and faith and moves on that displayed in our lives, not our fears and disappointments.
    Valerie

  30. This is a year of crazy hope for me. Last year was one of doubt, frustration, being hopeful and then feeling helpless. This year I am hoping big again. So much so that I am hopping on a plane to Russia in hopes that I can negotiate the release of my almost adopted daughter that I met in July 2012 who just turned 8 years old and happens to have Down syndrome. I am hoping to help change the way these children and others with special needs are viewed in Russia. Hoping to help more children stay in their biological families and get the ones who are stuck in orphanages adopted. I have a lot of friends and family who think I am just plan crazy. I will continue to hope for these things and do my best to see them accomplished. My word for this new year is “Trust”. I am not sure what my plans will accomplish but I am trusting God that he will help me along the way. I am hoping I will make at least a small difference in the lives of the forgotten children. I made a video for Christmas of some of the children that got caught in the adoption ban if anyone wants to view it. Praying for others with righteous hopes and dreams this year. My you be courageous enough to step outside your comfort zones and trust God. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlZMWmZ6TrE

  31. Annie,
    You didn’t know, but God did, that my word for this year is ‘HOPE’. I am struggling to do just that, against all odds, knowing that He has my life in His hands, and I can Hope in Him.

    Thank you for this timely reminder, to keep me on track this year!
    Blessings!
    Sue

  32. Hello, Annie! Just wanted to let you know that I so appreciated this post 🙂 And that God used it to encourage my heart 🙂 a huge thanks for sharing! -Katie

  33. I just put 2 more of my dc in school after homeschooling for 18 years. It was not what I wanted, but God wants it. I am hoping that He will take care of them, and provide me with a way to make money at home so they can stay in school. I am also trying to be content with the situation and hopeful for new paths for me.

  34. I am new (about 6 months) to the DC area. I am hopeful that I find fulltime employment – a good job where I can stay for awhile. I hope that this job happens soon and provides financial stability so we can possibly end this year in a pregnancy 🙂

    I am hopeful that my few new friendships will grow and that my husband and I continue to make and grow relationships.

    I choose to HOPE this year!

  35. I’ve never quite managed that dance between hope and contentment. This year I’m hoping for a few dreams fulfilled, and to learn what it means to belong to a place. Hoping with you, Annie!

  36. I have grappled with hope my whole life. Until recently and by recently I mean like last week, i’ve been afrain to hope. Afraid to speak my wishes and dreams out loud. I’m afraid because to hope is to be vulnerable, to hope is to put your deepest wishes and dreams out there for everybody to see. There comes some sort of expectation with hope. Once your hopes leave your mouth or you start to allow them to seep into your mind you place expectations on yourself and on those thoughts. Thanks for this post, I needed this, I really did. There are many things I want and now I need to actually hope for them and stop trying to just be “content”. I read this quote last week and for the life of me I cannot remember where I heard it but it spurred this realization in me.

    “It is ok to hope. It is safe to hope. For my hope is in Christ Jesus.”

    Thanks for sharing!

  37. I absolutely join you! This resonates in my soul and spirit! Thank you for putting concrete words to what God has been stirring in my heart. I have begun praying since January 1 in confidence that God will work according to the promises of His Word, but this gives me the theme words for the year! Thank you. God bless you!!! Abundantly. I love the concept of ridiculous hope! <3

  38. Love, love, love this post! I’m hoping that this year God will bless us with another healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.

  39. Oh Annie,

    I read your article and every line healed my weak heart!
    At this time I’m struggeling with a coworker of mine. As a paramedic I have a teampartner I’m driving with. But he’s so unbelivable…different! He speaks less than five sentences on a day (yeah, 24h with him on work) and he gives me the feeling of being strange and ‘not already normal’.
    Everytime I say to me that God has a plan because I’m working with him. But it’s so hard to hope.
    But hard or not I WILL hope now and forever! Maybe my constant hope changes me more than every single word more of him!
    Feel hugged and be blessed!
    Yours,
    Rosie

  40. Hi Annie,

    I love this post. I really do pray that 2014 fer you is fruifful becasuse of the hope you have.

    This year I have lots of hope. I would like God to continue to transform me. I hope to be meaningful in my work, open my house up more, meet a godly man who would be my husband.

    HOPE – His one plan excels

    • Sounds like a solid list of things to hope for, Louise! I’ll hope right along with you for the things your heart desires, knowing that our God is always working on your behalf for your good and His glory!

  41. Anne~ Thank you for writing that you are CHOOSING to content & ridiculously hopeful. I am reminded we are reminded in Deut that the Lord has set before us life and death and He calls us to choose. I start 2014 with a choice….grateful!

  42. Thank you so much for this today. My husband and I have been separated for almost 9 mos and I am still praying for the reconciliation of our marriage and family. Some days I think I must be crazy to even hope. It seems so impossible. Thank you for helping me know it’s ok to still hope.

  43. Annie, thank you for this word of encouragement…. the timing could not be more perfect for me!

    There is a dream that has been in my heart since I was five years old. That means it has been with me for nearly FIFTY YEARS! I once did something to step toward that dream, and I was slapped back pretty hard. It broke my spirit at the time, and I buried that dream deep within – where it was ‘safe’. It was my own little treasure… one that I feared if I ever had the gumption to ‘go for’ again, I would get smacked backward. And I knew I couldn’t handle that again.

    Well…… yesterday, I FINALLY took that step. 34 years after my first attempt came OH SO CLOSE and then failed, I stepped out in faith again. What made me do it? Other than finding a job opening that was exactly what I have been looking for, it was the hope I have had all these years that just maybe, perhaps, if God willed it, I could have that dream and desire of my heart one day. Yesterday was not that day – but Tuesday MIGHT be! I have an interview then, and my dream could become a brilliant, full-color reality. I have faith in my Lord, that He has opened this door for a reason. And I have hope that my dearest dream, a childhood fantasy, is about to become my new life. I never gave up hope on my dream… and God never gave up on me!

  44. I’m referred to as the “HOPE” girl. I constantly wear the word HOPE on a necklace and own more than a few shirts with that simple but powerful word across it. I cling to it and promote it, swim in it and cherish it. This devotional was like reading my own heart. In other words I wish I would have written it. My family and I are in an extended difficult season of life and HOPE is what has kept me going forward when I know without it I would have given up. It is still so very difficult, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like my rudder on a boat–pointing me towards a loving, almighty Savior who never lets me out of His sight. I just had to say thanks for this writing and for the reminder that this indeed is to be the year we hoped.

    • Thanks for your comment, Laura. Thanks for being a beacon of hope to all those around you. You are impacting others more than you know, Hope Girl. 🙂

  45. I want to jump in with both feet! I love the fact that while we maybe can’t, GOD CAN! That gives me HOPE!

  46. Thank you, Annie, for naming the inertia . . . the Lord has had me on such a tight reign these last years, and I have persevered to live eucharisteo through this time. And it has felt ONLY like persevering. Your words . . . could it be that the miracle of perception of joy is near???

  47. Love this! I’m “hoping” for healing this year…Will you join me in praying? I’ve been not feeling well for 5 1/2 years, and have sometimes given up hope for healing in the name of being content. So this post struck a cord. PRAYING for HEALING, HOPING for HEALING! ♥

    • Chelsea,

      Prayers for complete healing from the great physician Himself! May God come and touch you and bring back peace, hope, health and healing!

      AMEN! 🙂

  48. I’ve felt hope slip through my fingers so many times in the last year. I am desperate to feel it again. It’s like I’m clawing to a steep mountain slope and loosing ground. I know that God is good though and ever faithful. My head knows it, my heart needs to feel it beyond any doubting shadow.

  49. Your post is the perfect gift for me…yesterday, the first proposal concerning our home, retirement and alimony was written by my attorney. One year ago, my husband of 39 years left our home. I was served divorce papers in September. Proceedings are moving forward and I feel as tho I am being forced to move on. But all along I have not and will not give up my hope! We serve a God of miracles and I refuse to stop praying for our miracle of reconciliation. Tho some of my adult children and friends are encouraging me to just stop thinking he will come back….my hope is still believing in a God who can do anything! Your post was exactly what I needed this morning !

  50. Annie,

    I am with you hoping for all God has for us, all only He can do! I am hoping for new things: new faith, new fire for the things of God, new love for God and his people. I am looking forward to 2014 hoping in Christ the giver of everything I need.

    Sandy

  51. Wow, I also chose hopeful for my word for this year and it seems every time I turn around there’s something said or written that expresses it as well! My hope is that my husband who has ALS will be healed this year. Medically speaking that is not possible but with God, ALL things are possible. I have also told others about my hope which is very bold for me under the circumstances but I truly believe my husband will be healed!

    • Donna,

      Prayers for you and your hubby. Your are absolutely correct. God is the God of miracles and He certainly can heal your husband! Praying for a miracle there!

      God Bless! 🙂

  52. I’m hoping for two girls to be my daughters. I thought of them several months ago – as far as I know, they don’t exist yet. But I had a dream where I adopt these two girls and through them God completely, totally, and absolutely redeems my past, renews my presents, and restores my hopes for a good future (long story…). Of course, I’m still in college and living with my mom, so the idea of becoming a mom – of two no less – is probably the definition of insanity. But that’s my hope and I’m sticking to it.

  53. Thank you Annie. My longest hope is for a godly husband, a man after God’s own heart. I will be 46 this year. Balancing hope and contentment – especially when the waiting is long – is hard. But it’s so much better than resignation.

    In the last week God has been showing me these verses from Song of Songs (2:10-13) over and over again.

    Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
    For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.
    Flowers are appearing on the earth.
    The season of glad songs has come.
    The cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.
    The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance.
    Come then, my beloved.
    My lovely one, come.

    Hope! That’s what these verses give me. The winter is past.
    There are many things I hope for, but I’ve discovered, that most of all I hope for more of God’s presence.

    Bless you Annie, as you also hope this year.

  54. Annie,

    Superb post!!

    This year I am hopeful and prayerful that God will heal a friend of cancer, Help another’s husband to heal from heart attack and semi coma (1.2 years ago).

    I am super hopeful that work will pick up for my hubby and co-worker so they can keep their jobs. Times are scary, especially in the medical field.

    Thank you for writing this great and wonderful post! God Bless! 🙂

  55. Ann,

    I completely understand. I’m 38 and a Godly husband is what I hope for too. Let’s not give up hoping for the Lord to answer that prayer for us, okay? 🙂

    Annie,

    Thanks so much for this post. I have also struggled with contentment vs being hopeful and felt like that meant I had to be perfectly content with my circumstances and not desire anything else.

    Like so many others, I have felt the Lord impress the word HOPE on my heart. I’m wearing a ring right now with those words and over and over last year, I saw the word. It was unbelievable.

  56. This post came at just the right time when I desperately needed it. Needed God’s direction, His assurance and His confirmation. Indeed, thank God we have hope in Christ! Thanking God for you too. 🙂

  57. My hope has become almost non-existent over the past few years, but I want to make 2014 my year of hope. I want to see my adult son surrender his life to God and truly start living, something I have prayed for since before he was born. My one word for this year is faith, faith and hope that God can and will save my son. Until then I will be content in my own salvation and hope for the salvation of others. Thank you for your wonderful insight.

  58. My hope this year is that we can follow God’s call & move to a nearby city. Our calling to the city includes helping with a new church plant. Financially, the move will be difficult since housing could be about $300-$400 more per month. Believing 2014 will be a Banner Year for our family!!

  59. Oh yes! I am very hopeful for 2014! Last year was disappointing and difficult, and although God did do many amazing things, it was a tough year for a lot of people. It felt like the devil was working overtime in attack mode. But this year, I am hoping for an amazing year of miracles for Christians everywhere!

  60. At 3:00 am, almost 4:00 i find this YEAR very refreshing. As i too am HOPEFUL of 2014. The year 2013 was a “thorn in my flesh”. Yet God kept teaching me thru His Word, stay on course, gosh it seemed hard. As a caretaker of my house, husband etc. I keep searching for the calling of what God wants me to do. At age 61 now still feeling like i can do all things, yet, a bit slower, but never giving up…our pastor says when you need God, YELL HELP! I find myself doing that quite a bit…I really want this year to be different…or the beginning!

  61. I want to believe and hope that The LORD WII SAVE MY SON PAUL, and for my anxiety will be finally taken away from me this year so I can serve Him better.
    IN JESUS NAME

  62. I am so glad Dayspring put this in the email this morning. My husband is 35 and over Christmas, the doctors found a mass on his lung. We were in the process of moving and changing jobs, and throughout that process, we were learning to wait and trust in the Lord, but this has been a difficult blow. Thank you for reminding us to hope in the Lord, in what He will do in this new year.

  63. Dear Anne,

    I have been jobless for 4 months now. I am unsure why my experience and academics is not attracting the eyes of a potential employer. I am scared within because I am the primary supporter of my family. I have surrendered myself totally to the Lord with a Hope that He will find me something that is right for me. Pray for me. Your blog in Dayspring was heartwarming because it gave me renewed Hope that the Lord has something for me in 2014. God bless

  64. This year i truly hope for healing…..i have a disease, the one that starts with the letter “c”! God is my healer and He will do so this year as I beleive anf trust Him!

  65. I am hoping that at last I will LIVE my life as it comes day by day and not fearing the future and everything else around me. May God direct me in all things.

  66. This year I am hoping that the Lord will bless my husband and I with a true miracle. I hope that he will prove medical science wrong. I hope this almost 46 yr old woman, with one fallopian tube, and difficulty conceiving, WILL conceive! I am hoping that our wonderful and loving Lord will bless us in this way!

  67. Thank you for making me sit up and take notice. Contentment + hopelessness in my life have equaled settling. Settling for whatever because what else was I going to do? Well, I’m going to renew my sense of anticipation with what God can do in any given situation. My situation is very different, I think, because I am in a sad marriage. Not abusive, just not fulfilling, totally incompatible for 38 years. It’s been the struggle of my life to stay married and hide my pain. I knew we were headed for problems early on BUT THEN, God saved me! After accepting The Lord I felt I must stay. It has affected the raising of children, alienation of friendships, etc, etc. the kind of thing you can never talk about. So, it seems hopeless and I pretend to be content. So, maybe I will just hope for the impossible…after all these years true contentment will come.

  68. i am praying for my daughter, whose pastor husband chose his secretary over his wife and this daughter has not found a job yet after a year of searching. She is keeping her
    heart set on God and is active in church, Sunday School and Divorce Care. It breaks my heart to see her without financial security. She has not a penny of income and we are helping as much as possible but my husband has 4 kinds of cancer and is in a clinical trial, which seems to be working and we are on poverty income level.
    I have two auto-immune diseases which have no cure but I am getting by. It’s hard to claim God’s promises when we see nothing happening. I don’t want to lose hope but some days it’s so hard. We refuse to go on Welfare as we have not missed a meal yet! Ha Pray for us that we will not lose hope.

  69. As I read others messages of hope, I feel my needs and hopes are so small and petty. But I try to remember that God will help us ALL. We are all at different places and have different needs or dreams. My hope for 2014 is to get out of debt or at least be able to pay all my bills and payments without going further into debt. Last year I had to pay some bills with my credit cards, so it just added to my troubles.
    So I hope this year that God will guide my financial decisions so as to help me pay things off.
    I hope that I can see where God is leading me and my family.
    I hope my children continue to hear Jesus call them.
    I hope my husband’s health issues improve.
    Thank you for this chance to put into writing and maybe now into action, my hope for the new year.

  70. I have to admit that I read a couple of comments but couldn’t wait to post my own hope so I scrambled to the end and here I am. I hope first that everyone, everywhere gets what they are hoping for, God will it. I have been struggling with this content vs hope conundrum since starting a new business that has the potential of creating great wealth for me and my family. I have started a journey to be closer to Jesus at the same time and I was feeling guilty for wanting to succeed in my new business. Now, I see it is about balance, it is not ‘content vs hope’ it is being content AND hopeful. It’s being content with what you have and making the most of it always, no matter how much you have. It’s taking what God has blessed you with and turning it into blessings for all. Thank you Annie.

  71. Oh, I am a dreamer. I have dreamed for my whole life of raising my kids in the country. Here I am “content” in the suburbs. On a good day. My problem is that my husband is perfectly with life in the city, and even wants to move closer to downtown. So on not-so-good days, I’m more hopeless than content. Thank you for the reminder that God knows my heart and my dreams, and so does my husband.

  72. Your words went straight to my heart. As I have read all of the hopes of these other women, I thought how enormous it all is. BUT, God is so much bigger than all of our hopes put together and He can do things we would never even conceive of. I am hoping this year for the salvation of my two sons and that they would take that leadership role in their families as Christian men and those families would be changed. And praying release for my daughter from a stronghold….I believe she is beginning to see it and I pray that she will see counsel….she is so close to breaking free. God is able.

  73. I’m hoping for a LIVING, healthy baby (or babies!) We lost Ellis last April at 16wks, got pregnant in August and lost Truman on Christmas. It has been beyond difficult to hope again, but you have inspired me to try. Thank you.

  74. I’m easily a contented person and I’m very contented this year. In hope that this year I will enter into a holier place than I’ve ever been before. I’m contented that I will be able to acquire this dream through the LORD.
    Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.
    Ask, seek and knock on the DOOR, JESUS.
    🙂
    Content and happy and ready to do more this year than ever before.