First, may I wish you a most wonder filled new year. Like most years, 2012 was filled incredible blessings and deepest sorrows. I pray that you find healing from all that has hurt you and inspiration from each of your blessings. I pray that whatever your hopes are for the near year you are able to not only attain them, but conquer each and every one!
While we are here, I’d like to share my thoughts on new year’s resolutions. As a youth I saw the new year as a fresh slate, an opportunity to change for good. It was an exciting time! I had a fresh calendar to fill out, new opportunities, and the ability to right the wrongs of the past year. It was a feeling of near euphoria at the freshness of the year. I was optimistic and determined.
The issue with this is that I never really allowed for my own humanity. I would start out like gangbusters, full of ambition. I would work hard at being faithful to my goals- certain that this year would be different. Then I’d find myself faltering. A stumble becomes a fall, a fall becomes a broken resolution. Once I broke my new year’s resolution, whatever that might be, I felt my opportunity had been crushed and there was no chance of attaining my goals. To me, the opportunity was lost.
How silly am I?
It is a darn good thing that God does’t work that way! In my mind -one strike and you are out. Heck, baseball doesn’t even work that way!
I have been thinking a great deal these days about opportunity and personal growth. I fully dedicate that this year to growth and goals, hopes and making dreams bloom. However, it’s also about personal forgiveness.
So- I am not perfect. That’s okay, I don’t HAVE to be.
I do however, have to be determined and bigger than my weakness. I do have to pick myself up after I understand yet again, that I am not perfect.
It is clear to me that you need not be perfect to succeed, (maybe just a little spunky). Even Lincoln lost a total of eight elections before winning the presidency. Clearly he made his mark on the world and is considered today to be one of the greatest humans who have graced the earth. By all standards before he won the presidency, he was a failure.
The lesson here seems to be that we keep going. Don’t let your stumbles defeat you, learn from them, be more determined than your failures. Don’t allow one bad day take the wind from your sails. Forgive your own imperfections.
Remember- today is chapter 2013- page 1 of 365. Now go catch those dreams. Write your own chapter, breathe your own success. It IS within you. If today you don’t reach the goals you thought you should, tomorrow is another day.
Thanks for listening.
In peace-
Susan