“Out with the old, in with the new!”
“New year, new me!”
“These are my New Years Resolutions, what are yours?”
It’s that time again… not just the ending of another year, but the end of another decade. This is a time where many people are making their new year resolutions, and talking about fresh starts.
2019 has been a year of ups and downs, and tonight, I’m considering what I am going to take with me into not only 2020, but this new decade, and the future.
I wonder what you want to take with you? Some people would say they want to take all their loved ones and all their possessions. Others might say they don’t want to take anything at all, and they want 2020 to be a fresh start.
For me, I know there are some things I definitely don’t want to take into 2020 (or beyond!). Some things I want to leave behind are toxic friendships, wrong attitudes and low self esteem, among other things.
What do you want to leave behind?
Some of the things I’d like to take with me into the new year are not only the relationships with my loved ones, but some great lessons I have learned this past year. I’d like to just take a moment to share a couple of those with you:
- Love endlessly, but let go when it’s time. I realised one day, that I thought I “loved too much”. I kept being hurt by people I was loyal to, when they weren’t loyal to me. This taught me to love everyone, but if a friendship isn’t going to last, let it go. Don’t force it… it isn’t worth it. Friends come and friends go… as much as it hurts when they go, not every friendship was made to last forever. There are 3 types of friends: Friends for a reason, friends for a season, and friends for a lifetime.
- It’s okay to feel what you feel. I know I’ve talked before about it being “okay to not be okay”, but this is more than that. This is a multitude of feelings, especially for empathic people who feel everything very deeply, like me. Some of the time these past few months, I have been overwhelmed by everything going on in the world, especially in our country. The devastating bushfires, the drought, the farmers struggling to feed their livestock, the insane highs and lows of the weather, the list goes on. One afternoon I was in tears while on the phone to a friend, because of the devastation this country is in. I felt stupid and thought I was selfish to feel it all so deeply when there are others in worse situations than us here, but they told me it’s okay to feel what you feel; take a moment, cry if you need to, feel sad about it, but don’t take it on and let it become your burden. Don’t let all the short-term problems turn into your own long-term problems. Feel what you feel, but don’t live there.
- Don’t ask God to be with you. Be with Him, instead. This one I feel is the most important, and it was only yesterday that a dear family friend and I were talking, and we spoke about this. Often when we are praying, we ask God to be with us through the day, and guide us as we go about our business. But think about it: would it be better if God walked with you, or if you walked with God?
We need to constantly seek the Lord; the Bible tells us that if we seek Him, trust Him, rest in Him, and wait on Him, He will give us the desires of our heart. The thing is though, that doesn’t mean God will give us just what we want. As we seek the Lord and draw closer to Him, the Holy Spirit fills our minds. God’s desires for us become our desires, and we long for what HE wants for us, not our own selfish, fleshly desires.
So walk with God, my friends, every day. Instead of asking Him to be with you, tell Him you want to be with Him. Ask Him to show you what He wants you to do, and where He wants you to be. Open your heart and your mind, be willing to follow, and He will show you. That right there is my biggest goal for 2020; to walk with God, instead of asking Him to walk with me.
Whether or not you make resolutions for 2020, if you consider this to be a brand new start with a new year and new decade, or even if tomorrow is just another day to you, take a few moments to think. Think about the most important lessons you’ve learnt in the past 12 months, what you’d like to take with you in that sense into the new year, and what you’d like to leave behind. I’m not making resolutions, but I have goals. Do you have goals? Plans? Resolutions? Ideas?
That’s just a few things for you to consider, dear friends, and with that I will love and leave you.
Thank you for being loyal followers and readers, and I’m so grateful for all the love and support I have received from you all, especially in my last few months of being a little up and down.
Please remember to uphold those in the fire zones in your prayers, pray for our country, our fire fighters, and the families who have lost loved ones, their homes, or both. Continue to pray for the much needed rain, to break the drought for the struggling farmers. It’s bad enough here, yet I know there are still places worse off than this. Please Lord send us rain, or even better, come quickly Lord Jesus!
Wishing you all peace and joy, and a beautiful and blessed 2020!
With love,
Julie xo
