Well, here
we are, at the end of one crazy year. Most people saying that they can’t wait
for 2020 to be behind us. What did 2020 look like for you? Did you lose a loved
one? Did you welcome a newborn into the world? Did you deal with incredible stress?
Did you remain calm through the storm? Will you breathe a sigh up relief when
the virtual ball drops in a zoom meeting tonight? Do you look forward to 2021
more in a, “well, it can’t be any worse” kind of way, or do you say, “bring on
2021, I look forward to a great year?”
Did you grow
in 2020? Have you become a more caring person or a better educated person? Have
you grown in your relationship with God or have you struggled to see Him in the
storm?
Remember
your resolutions from last year? Did you…take that trip? Read more books? Spend
more quality time with your kids? Eat healthier? Lose that weight you wanted? Create
and stick to a budget? What was your resolution? How does that look now? What’s
the excuse? Are we blaming the corona? Some things were beyond our control,
yes, but more weren’t.
We can’t
just go making resolution after resolution every year and look back and say,
well…. that’s because….
Are we still
going to make resolutions this year? And what will we be saying when 2022 shows
up? Well… that’s because?
Can we try
and make a resolution that 2021 will be different? Not because the corona won’t
be as bad or that now the elections are behind us, but because we are going to
assume responsibility for our own stuff. If we can’t keep resolutions, why are we
making them? If we are just setting ourselves up for failure, then let’s stop.
No, it’s not better to continually make resolutions and then fail. It’s not, “well,
at least I ate well for January!” When we continually see ourselves as not
being able to follow through, as though we failed again, our self-image takes
hit after hit. We get accustomed to failure, and that’s not good, and it’s not
healthy.
You can
control a lot of your life. You need to live your life, and not let the world
live it for you. Let’s start out by making fewer and less intense resolutions.
Let’s make a resolution that you can look at and say, “that’s easy!” Let’s
start waking up 15 minutes earlier in the morning. Let’s stay off our phones
until we’ve at least gotten dressed. Let’s tell our kids that we love them,
every single day! Let’s not bring the entire bag of kids to the living room.
Grab a bowl and fill it, and that’s it! Let’s set realistic weight loss goals. Let’s
drink more water. Let’s take a walk every day, it doesn’t have to be a mile,
just get out there!
Most
importantly, let’s spend more time with the One who loves and cares for you
more than anyone! Read a devotional every day. Put your Bible on your breakfast
table and read it while you eat. It’s so much easier going through life when
you know God’s got your back. It helps give you the confidence to approach a
new day. You no longer fret over the minutia but tend to see the bigger
picture. You become a more caring and less judgmental person. You become a
light in someone else’s day.
I am not
going to be looking to 2021 as some new breath of fresh air. I am not going to
be hoping for a fresh pair of rose-tinted glasses. The world is a mess. That
won’t change at midnight. There are good people and there are bad people. There
are people that think they are good but they’re not. Many people go through
life thinking to themselves, well, at least I’ve never done (fill in the blank).
We can’t
approach life thinking, “I’m not that bad!” We can all find someone to compare
ourselves to and say that. How about we approach life thinking, “How can I make
a positive difference in someone’s life? How can I help someone?” A life lived
for others is a life well-lived. It’s a purposeful life, an important life, a
life that has meaning and purpose. It’s a life we can be proud of when it comes
time to look back.
I don’t
think 2021 is going to bring the sigh of relief many expect. I think it will
continue to present challenge after challenge. But I am not going to let those
challenges drag me down. I go into 2021 knowing I’ve got a God who loves me
more than anything! I know that He will work things out for my good. He won’t
stop the bad from happening, but He will turn the bad around and not only get
me through it but have me better off on the other side. He does NOT bring the
bad, He loves us. But He helps us through it and strengthens us and grows us.
I’m not to
go on a rant about people saying, “everything happens for a reason” beyond saying
that is nonsense. (I’ll deal with that in my next book).
This post is
not meant to be a downer. It’s trying to give you a flashlight, a way to see
through the muck and mire to the other side. God is good, and He loves YOU! He
is walking through your day alongside you. If you choose not to even
acknowledge Him, He’s still there. He’s still loving you. But think how much
more amazing this life would be, and your life in particular if you had a real,
authentic and personal relationship with the One walking with you? How much less
stress you would be feeling, how confident you would be in your future. We don’t
just get there without intention though. We need to talk to the One who made
us! When we have that relationship in a healthy place, life is so different. We
aren’t angry at 2020. We aren’t looking for a calendar change to make life
better. We already see where it’s going. We already know who writes the final
chapter. Our mission is to firstly have that relationship, and secondly to try
and help others find that relationship as well. We do that by loving them!
My prayer
for you this year is that your relationship with God grows stronger. That you
understand the importance of your spirit. That you develop the heart for serving
others more than you have. That you don’t let the ways of the world drag you
down. That you love on your kids even more than you already do. That you
develop a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in your life. I pray that as we
turn the page from 2021 into 2022, that you will look back on this coming year
and smile.
God Bless
You!
