Sunday, December 27, 2020
I hope you are doing well and have had a good Christmas and Kwanzaa so far.
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I have not been in touch because, well, I have not sat down to write in a while. December was a busy month with a lot of highs and some lows.
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Some highs were starting CGT, finding new techniques to help develop my students, and discovering new creative outlets that also help in my productivity. My main low was that after school (subbing), I did not have a lot of excess energy, and in general, I always felt like I was not accomplishing much.
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Either way, 2020 is coming to a close. There are things that I want to accomplish, and I feel like the reason I have not done so yet, is because I have not written them down. I have seen people talk about how they live the life they once made dream boards around. Others have the same testimonies about their prayers in a journal. There is a gratifying feeling around having prayers you continuously look at or have a record of being answered. Any prayer answered is to be honored, but having one written down answered is like God Himself crossed it off the list.
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Now for the thing that spurred this on. You may have seen this picture going around:
The scary thing is that it’s not a lie.
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How many posts do we usually see every year where people are excited for the coming year with the expectation that it will work in their favor? This year is a year you would think many people would be happy to put behind them. However, there is so much trepidation that we are not even willing to speak good things into an unknowing situation.
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I’ll get real with you. There has not been a day yet that we knew everything that would happen. There are days that you expect to be great, then the unexpected happens. Now, that great day turned out okay. There are other days where you may feel horrible, but then God allows for blessings to come. Now, this has become the best day of the year. I have decided that I would rather walk into the unknown with faith over fear. Walking into the valley of shadow and death is a lot better when I have faith in God who walks with me and makes it so I can fear no evil.
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Now let me be honest with you. I did not create a plan for 2020. I just figured I would keep believing God and go with the flow of things to see how it would pan out. I have now realized though, even in everything going on, God has still been faithful to me especially when I did not deserve it. God has been opening doors and proving to me who He is and I am exceedingly grateful for it. I also realized that there were people who put their faith in God for specific things, some of them at the beginning of the pandemic, and with their faith and works (James 2:26), God gave those things to them.
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I have been thinking about how many things I would have accomplished if I made a plan with God last year and stuck with it. How many things would I have crossed off of my list? Whom would I have impacted? Where would I have gone? How would my faith and relationship with God be?
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If no one else will say it, I will. 2021 will be my year! Not because I know what tomorrow holds, but because I serve a God who is greater than anything that was, is, or comes into being. My faith is that my God is still the great and mighty God I proclaimed Him to be at the beginning of this year. No matter the situation, I am walking into 2021 declaring the victory because right now, I’m in victory. Every breath I breathe, that’s victory. Every praise I can lift, that’s victory. When I wake up in the morning, that’s victory. When I can think of the goodness of Jesus, that’s victory.
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Today, I created a dream board, or in my words a growth board. I will be sharing it (the digital version) and the process if you want guidance to make your own later this week.
In the meantime, here are some things you can do. Think of the goodness of God, what God has done for you, what doors He opened, even ones He shut, and how this was all good for you. Open yourself up to a conversation with God. Talk about where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re growing to. Thank Him for His goodness and for the future he has for you. Ask him for direction in what you should be doing, where you should focus yourself, and how you should conduct yourself. If it’s not already, make prayer and devotion (reading your Bible) apart of your daily routine. Make sure to write these things down. It will be handy later.
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I am praying for you and will write to you soon.
