It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016!
Are you ready? Are you ready to leave this year behind and step into the unknown of the New Year? When you look back at this time last year, did you anticipate that you would be where you are, doing what you’re doing, being who you’ve been over the last 364 days?
I certainly didn’t expect to be where I am today. I didn’t expect to have my life totally changed by a trip to South America — holding babies with HIV and touching hearts broken by the effects of human trafficking. I didn’t expect to move into a new house the week before Thanksgiving — filling hundreds of boxes and working hours into the night to make the new house a home for the holiday. I didn’t expect a lot of things, but here we are. Life has flown by, albeit some days slower than others. It has been mostly good, a little bit sad, some parts really difficult. And while expectations either dash our plans or supersede them beyond imagination, the days of 2015 will come to a close in a just a few short hours.
We will don our sparkly, sequined skirts, light up some candles, drink some sparkling grape juice out of a pretty glass and wear our cheesy party hats as we welcome in the new year: 2016. We will have expectations of what 2016 should be and what we hope it will be. We will wish and pray and hope and dream next year just like we did last year. And maybe life will be the same, and maybe life will be drastically different.
But in all of that is the blessing and opportunity for a new beginning. Every year God provides a way for us to leave behind the past and walk into the future. If it’s good, we take that and build upon it to make something greater; if there was bad, we take it and learn from it and grow in hopes of better. That’s the beauty of New Year’s Resolutions to me. Long ago I began leaving off the “eat healthier/exercise more” resolutions in favor of “I simply want to be the best I can be this year in all things.” I want to do better, I want to be better, yes. Mainly, however, I want to truly live out my purpose: I want to live 2016 in the way that Christ created me to live.
I did a lot this year, I learned a lot this year. But there’s more to do, there’s more to learn. I never want to become complacent in preparing for the New Year because there is always room for improvement. So that’s what my 2016 will be for me: a time to truly live out the purpose Jesus created me for. I may still be learning it bit by bit, but that’s a part of the learning and doing.
That’s also what we will strive for here at She’s Intentional:
This is a place where we want to help cultivate the purpose that Jesus has for YOU. Every article, every post, every devotional. It’s all for you, Darling. This year is YOUR year to shine, to live with purpose, to be the woman God created you to be!