It’s something about the end of the year that pushes me to introspection. As soon as November rolls around, I begin to feel a tiny bit of anxiousness to tie up any loose ends left in the year.
Do you feel this way too? I seem to always do.
This time of year, my mind becomes flooded with thoughts like…”Was this year successful? Was I productive? Did I accomplish God’s purpose for me this year?”
I look at where I am right this moment and I panic because of the thoughts that begin to surface that I should be so much further along than where I am.
How easy it is that I forget. How easy we forget.
We forget about the eleven months preceding us filled with big and little victories, miracles and progressive movement.
We forget the new explorations that we’ve discovered about ourselves and the new places we’ve visited. We forget about all we’ve learned and how hard we’ve worked to feed and clothe ourselves and our children.
We forget about the generous acts of love we’ve expressed toward others and all the love shown toward us.
We just fail to remember so much.
Our present circumstances have a tendency to blind our ability to see our progression. And without intentional time taken to remember all that God has brought us through, these blessings and important moments fade into a distant past remaining purposeless and forgotten.
And then guess what happens?
Feelings of failure emerge and begin to attack our confidence and the reality that things are not as “bad” as they seem.
This is the cycle that I want to break.
Next year, when November 2017 rolls around, I want to take a different approach to introspection. Spending less time beating myself up over the things that I didn’t accomplish and spending a generous amount of time beaming with pride over the things that I did accomplish.
I believe that this is what God wants us to do. He doesn't want us to rip ourselves apart because of our failures and shortcomings but build ourselves up by remembering all that He has done for us while spending much time with Him to obtain direction for the upcoming year.
Each year, we create big goals for ourselves. We make plans of the things we want to do, places we want to visit, and goals we want to accomplish. This is normal and healthy even. But make sure that you are leaving room for God to make changes. Allow Him the opportunity to throw curve balls in your plans.
If you mentally make space for this at the beginning of each year, you will appreciate your journey so much more. You won’t beat yourself up when your year takes a different route than what you originally planned.
Take a moment and remind yourself of all the amazing things that you experienced this year write them down even - your accomplishments, discoveries, loves and even growing pains. These are all important to your journey.
No matter where you are at this moment, know that you are right where you are supposed to be.
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