2013

So, today is November 26, 2013...11/12 of the year is gone...past history...and here we are a couple days before Thanksgiving, a month before Christmas, just over a month til the new year dawns.  I'm thinking back to this time last year, as I was pondering recent events and processing them, as I tend to do.  I had New Year's Resolutions on my mind and though a little premature, was thinking what I would "resolve" to do in 2013.

I had had fruit of the spirit on my mind lots, and so I resolved to build a basket of spiritual fruit in my life for the upcoming new year...plus a few more attributes that I felt would better my life and make me a little more Christlike.  It was a worthy goal.

Looking back, however, I think I fell well-short.  I have experienced some progress, but with me it seems to be one step up, two steps back.  Those wonderful attributes are very elusive, especially when things are rough or stressful, as most of our year has been.

I listed love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, self-control, etc and wrote about each for the first several months of the year.  As the year went on, and as things continued to spin somewhat out of control in some aspects, it seemed that I had created a monster of sorts with my lofty goals.  You know how it goes sometimes...pray for patience and then get tested...pray for peace and find yourself in the middle of an uproar...pray for self-control and then find yourself counting to 10 once every hour or so.

So defeating...so discouraging.

Then it dawned on me...just let it go.  Relax a little bit.  Cut yourself some slack.  Next year may be trying but I'd be willing to bet not as trying as this one has been.  Or tiring...no, make that not as exhausting.  I think it's setting up to be a GOOD year; I'm counting on it!  I think as our stressors mounted, my spirit of defeat increased incrementally...certainly not what I wanted or resolved.  I was letting my feeling of defeat overshadow my growth, and that fact was keeping me down and out.  Realizing what was going on did so much to allow me to just let go and let God be in control, as only He can.

God has never left us, never has forsaken us, still loves us, still undergirds us, especially when the going gets tough.  I think He is perhaps even a little proud of us for enduring and coming out of our tough year with gentler attitudes and still in one piece emotionally and physically.  We need His approval, His smiles, His hugs and encouragement.  He did not disappoint us at all.

So:  there's next year!  I have my list of around 15 very admirable and I think even attainable spiritual goals, and I intend to incorporate these traits into my life and heart.  I'm not resolving to do so, just to do my dead-level best to be all I can be, with God's help.  Could it be that I'm feeling more at peace already?  And growing some because of all the trials?  That would make them all worth while! 

My basket will not be full nor overflowing in 2013 but there's still tomorrow.  I won't take these for granted.  I will be open and receptive and expectant of/to these...they will still be my goals.  But no more pressure to have them in abundance or else.  I am going to be still and know that He is God, and I am His beloved child.  That's enough!!

My best wishes to each of you this Thanksgiving season.  As Christmas approaches, may the God of all our hopes and dreams and resolutions be very real to each of us, as we strive to follow more closely and to serve our fellowman with more light and life.