Hey Valley View. Well, as you know, I’m recording this because you’re probably at home and it hasn’t started snowing here yet because this is still Saturday when we’re recording this. But all indications are that Big Storm is coming. And so after consulting with the elders, the staff, it seemed best to call off the church service for Sunday morning and didn’t want to end up with people stuck at church or in the parking lot. But what we wanted to do was just give you some devotional thoughts to discuss as a family Sunday morning. There’s something powerful about the family sitting down together, discussing God’s Word together and unfortunately, we often don’t get those moments. And I think this is an opportunity for families to connect around the scriptures in particular. And if you live at home alone, call up a friend and maybe discuss this together. Before I get to the passage, though, to introduce you to this week, I want to mention that right now, Saturday afternoon, our young adults are wrapping up a conference they’ve been attending on missions here in Louisville. It’s a powerful conference. So be praying for them. And it’s a key season of growth for so many those, early, late teen years, early 20 years, a lot of big decisions are being made. And oftentimes that’s some of the biggest years of experiencing God at work in your life for many. So be praying for them. It’s a big event and we’re excited to get to go. Now for you. I want to point you to a passage I plan to preach on the next time we’re together to launch us into the new year. It’s in second Peter chapter one. We’ve been going through the book of First Peter. We’re taking a brief break from it because I wanted to focus these first few weeks of the year on who we are as a church. What do we value, what are the things that when we think of Valley View, we think, yeah, that’s what Valley View is about. That’s who we are. And I think we see some things in Second Peter that go well with where God has led us, how he has shaped us and who we are. Also, though I think it’s a good maybe breather from the weightiness of First Peter. First Peter is all about how do you flourish in the midst of suffering. And there’s a lot there to unpack. There’s a lot to think about. And overall, there’s a heaviness to that subject of suffering. And to be fair to Peter, Second Peter isn’t only about suffering. Peter himself doesn’t only talk about suffering. In fact, Second Peter is about truth and hope. And those are things, especially if you’ve come out of suffering. You need both. And those are two things I think Valley View is about– hope and truth. So many who have suffered need to hear the message of hope and also be reassured with truth. We don’t steer away from truth in hard times. To make ourselves feel better. We turn toward truth to find hope. But here’s the passage I want you to read through and look at as a family. Second Peter, chapter one. You could read through verses three through ten, but really focus in starting at verse five through verse eight. Here’s what it says: for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control, with steadfastness and steadfastness, with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. So he gives a list of qualities, character qualities to grow in, to supplement your faith with, to continue to grow in. But he says this at the end, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s where I want you to focus on this passage. Our theme word for the year as a church is grow. Grow into oaks of righteousness. We want to be growing deep in our knowledge of who Christ is. We want to be growing in our understanding of how he’s at work in our life. We want to be growing in holiness. We want to be growing in character each and every one of us. And so as you read through this passage, here’s the one question I’d love for you to discuss it. Which of these character qualities that you see here do you want to see improve, increase in your life in 2025? If our theme for the church is grow, what specific area do you personally want to see God at work in your life in the coming year? And especially words that are in this passage, and you can even expand to a few verses before, a few verses after. Because in verse five when he says, for this very reason, he is talking about the gospel that is embedded just prior to that, of course, that lays the foundation for all these character qualities, but if these are yours and they are increasing, if they are growing, we never want to be in a place where we think we can coast that we have it all figured out, but that God is continually at work in our life and we’re continuing to trust him in all things. So read that passage, Second Peter chapter one, verses five through eight, maybe as much as verses three through ten, but especially five through eight, and discuss how you want God to be working in your life this year. And then I would, as I mentioned in the midweek update, that this week I would pick one word and really meditate on it this year and pray over it. God, would you increase my faith this year, would you increase my self-control? Would you increase my steadfastness? Would you increase– my word– joy this year? Whatever that word is, begin to pray that God would work in your life in that way this coming year, and discuss that as a family. Also, Isaac has put together a playlist of a couple of worship songs. I think it’ll be on Spotify. That link should be in whatever social media post we’ve put this embedded this video in, whether that’s on Facebook or Instagram or both. You can find that link. And if you know what all that means in terms of using Spotify and listening to plays playlist, great. If you don’t, that’s okay. You can ask around. Maybe someone can help you with that, but maybe just listen to some of those songs, sing, sing along to a few, and then discuss this passage as a family. Or you might let the songs play while you’re making breakfast together. I’m guessing many will be at home together on Sunday morning, but our hope is to just give you an opportunity to connect as a family around the gospel and and to hopefully together look forward to a year of growth. I really believe God has some amazing things in store for our church this year, so be praying for Valley View. I know so many of you already do and thank you for that. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement and my prayer is that your family would have a great time of connection this Sunday morning. God bless you guys.