The Quiet Reordering

When God Rearranges Your Desires

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Wishing every one of my beautiful readers a Happy New Year! Welcome to January 2026 and may God bless each of you richly with deeper personal intimacy with Him in the coming year.

While excitement for the fresh, new start of another year urges me to ignite the fires of productivity, I am choosing a soft launch to the year.

If you feel weary with the performance and self-improvement treadmill and want to join me, read on, I have some resources for you too at the end!

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In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.

Proverbs 16:9-NIV

We love starting the year with plans, lists, and a sense of direction and purpose. But sometimes God invites us into a different beginning—one in rhythm with the winter season of rest.

In the quiet reordering of this season, God rearranges our priorities, desires, and pace through rest rather than effort.

In harmony with winter, we find space for noticing what no longer nourishes our souls, and what is coming to life within. In a softer January, we open to God’s reordering of our inner world in ways striving can never accomplish.

Though counter cultural, I believe January, as the first month of each new year is not for bolting out of the starting gate, racing toward ill-formed goals and resolutions, no matter how well intentioned.

Rather January offers a time of rest, reflection, and refinement under God’s infallible guidance.

A new year represents fresh, blank pages, and the temptation to fill them feels energizing. But I have found holding space for the empty page of a new year without the need to fill it, creates opportunity for meaningful becoming instead of hurried happening.

Photo I captured during a recent snow

Societal voices insist we shift into hustle mode with the flip of a calendar page, armed with goals designed to improve our appearance, finances, careers, and just about every other area of our lives.

Especially in challenging or painful seasons, adding the need for overhauling areas of our lives which fall short increases our soul burden.

I remember the time I sprinted into January armed with an audacious list of goals, resolutions and improvements, including the popular, “things I want more of, and things I’m leaving behind”. In a word, CHANGES, in capital letters, garnished with urgency.

Despite my full head of steam, before long, I not only stumbled, I crashed.

Sitting with the reality that I accomplished little, while heaping shame on the casualty pile, God invited me into a reset. With deep gentleness, He revealed the truth about my misguided notions.

My expectations couched in ambitious goals failed to consider my soul’s deepest needs. As is true for many, the holiday season holds exhaustion, and often sadness and grief. Navigating the season for me, requires mammoth energy and a good deal of emotional management.

Creating a robust list of expected change, with a launch date of January 1st, dealt my ravished soul an almost mortal blow.

Goals, resolutions, and improvements in their simplicity are desires, and while desires are not sinful, they can be misguided.

Influenced by guilt over falling short or not measuring up, by what others in our close circles choose to pursue, by the latest societal norm peddled everywhere, or our own discontent with ourselves and our lives, unrefined desires compel us into fool’s errands at best.

Surrendering to a season of rest, reflection and refinement creates space for God to reorder misguided desires. Through the process of quiet reordering, God gently aligns our hearts with His. Though the process may result in abandoning some desires, the purpose of God’s rearranging is the refinement, not removal of our desires.

Photo I captured of our yard and deck

My greatest lesson from the time I described earlier was authentic awareness. In my slower pace with God, I became able to view my desires from a posture of rest and reflection. Which in turn enabled me to make authentic choices for the coming year, while surrendering my desires to God for His refining care.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.

Proverbs 16:3-NIV

If pushing ahead with goals and resolutions that somehow feel like you are wearing someone else’s clothes, or feeling guilty because you have no inspiration for the coming year has you discouraged, here are 3 small steps you can take today.

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Rest

Choose a softer January by making time for genuine rest. Perhaps that means physically doing less, creating space for small moments of enjoyment, or even a break from everybody’s new year’s posts on social media. Take the pressure off to create any new year goals or resolutions.

Reflect

When you feel ready, simply journal any desires floating around in your mind. Keep the list curious, not judgmental, just write down what comes to mind, have fun with it. Then make time to reflect on what you have written, and next to each entry, jot down a concise reason for your desire to pursue it.

Refine

Prayerfully bring your list before God over the course of several days. Open it before Him, offer it to Him, and ask Him to reorder your desires. Ask Him to reveal which desires hold authenticity, which are misguided, and which are mistimed. Maintain openness to the desires God may be gently rearranging or removing.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.

Psalm 62:5-8-ESV

My prayer for you this January is a gentle, life-giving pause for you to allow God to reorder your heart according to His wisdom, aligning your desires with His purposes as he leads you into 2026 in His peace.

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FREE Resources

Remember dear friends, beneath the stillness God is at work. For further help in embracing a softer January I have created these resources as an invitation to begin the year in a gentler way — not by striving, but by softening. Not by pushing forward, but by listening inward. Not by hustling, but by allowing God to meet you in the quiet places where transformation begins.

Choose the guide that resonates with your soul in this season. Either Winter Soul Practices, Six Gentle Rhythms for a Softer January, or The January Quiet, A Guided Retreat-at-Home. Both are FREE for download.

Winter Soul Practices- Six Gentle Rhythms for a Softer January- Download HERE

The January Quiet- A Guided Retreat-at-Home- Download HERE

Let these resources accompany you through the hush of winter, helping you notice the subtle ways God is shaping, restoring, and preparing you for the spring to come.

May this January be a sanctuary for your spirit — a month of soft beginnings, sacred rest, and holy renewal.

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Also, another great resource for the new year is my new devotional, The Grace of Gratitude: A 21-Day Journey to a Heart Transformed by Grace, is officially LIVE on Amazon.

Purchase either the Kindle edition or the Paperback edition of The Grace of Gratitude: A 21 Day Journey to a Heart Transformed by Grace on Amazon at this LINK

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Can I Ask a Huge Favor?

If you have purchased the book, would you consider leaving a review on Amazon? Even if you haven’t read it all yet, you could simply note the things you like about it in a review after looking through it. I am grateful for your help with this!

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