Happy New Year!
I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions (I prefer to identify and resolve problems as they arise) but I do love a good reflection.
Last year was a tough year for a lot of reasons, but, as I was reminded on a podcast this morning, suffering is part of life as a Christian. Suffering is good for us. As Scripture says:
We even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
So this post will be a short reflection on things that produced character/hope/endurance and also other great things. I encourage you to reflect on your years and always be working on ways to improve. We will never be perfect, but sainthood is not about perfection, it is literally about being “set apart” and we can always be working on setting our heart apart from the world and for God.
2022 Struggles
Pandemic –>
- Streamlined focus on family and priorities (more in details below).
- Time to read and reflect on priorities.
- Deliberate review of social obligations and work to move forward with what we want more of, and just as important, what we want to stop.
- Resilience – I’ve learned that resilience is not so much something you have or don’t. There’s fight or flight that you may have some instinct on, but resilience is more like a muscle that you need to work out. I had LOTS of opportunities to work on this, and am proud of the small positive character-building things I’ve accomplished. This isn’t a resolution since it will be something I work on.. until I’m gone!
3 walking children! –>
- Joy! (Easy to say when they’re all in school). Focusing on time and the blessing of children helped us focus again on how our children are gifts and helping us grow in character in a way that no bootcamp/coaching ever could.
- Companionship — we have been camping and playing together and it is so much fun. Sometimes we reflect on what empty nesting is like, and thank goodness they go through teenage years and young adulthood first. I don’t know what I’d do if suddenly I was just taking care of myself and could sit on the couch and be done at 6pm (OK maybe a few naps)
- Personally, I refocused on what I want out of work and made a big career move for myself. I’ll be seeing those fruits in the months to come but am already reaping the benefits of downtime and learning what to do with my time and how to structure my day to take care of my health so that I can be the best mom I can when my kids get home.
Our Future! –>
- It would have been easy to focus on “just making it” this last year. But we still made efforts to grow.
- Decluttering — we are making it a regular habit to toss/donate/regift things we don’t need. It makes life easier and honestly is more fun when there isn’t stuff everywhere. Hopefully this will be a lifelong lesson we can share with our kids.
- Financial Planning — so boring right? But it’s nice to get all our financial ducks in a role so they can “autopilot” while we enjoy family life.
- Faith – we read the whole bible with the bible in a year podcast! This was my first time and I loved it! And now that we have the discipline to reserve that 30-40 minutes a day, we’re working on other things (books/podcasts/youtube videos) to spend that time growing together. I’ll take any recommmendations you have!
- Celebrations and Community – we are learning and growing more to intentionally choose our community. We’ve made new friends and made adjsutments to our “grand plan”. We celebrated Las Posadas, Dia de Los Muertos, and Kwanzaa as a family for the first time and I hope this will become a tradition in years to come.
- This Blog – I know this is mostly for myself 🙂 But I DID it and I now have this to pass on to my children one day. I also believe that giving myself the chance to write and reflect has helped my mental health. Once day when I’m older, I know I will want to read and reflect on these thoughts, just as we reflect on photos regularly (thanks chromecast).
OK that’s as much as comes to mind. Again, happy new year!
Let us pray:
God, you are .. so good.
In giving us every
second, every
chance, every
opportunity
You give us the gift to live life to the full.
Let us embrace that gift,
internalize it,
let our spirit soar to the heights and depths that you desire for our growth.
And then when that gift has sufficiently enflamed our hearts, let us give it away
As your Son did,
knowing that the source of the flame is eternal
and benevolent
and overflowing,
and will continue to teach and guide us all the days of our life.