I love it when people say they have reviewed the past year and figured out what went wrong, and what went right. I wish my memory was that good. But in general, I think people tend to remember what they want to remember, the way they want to remember it.
My friend has a nemesis in her life. I doubt if she would ever remember anything that came out of that relationship as a good thing—no matter what it was. We go into every personal encounter with expectations, and too often, we get what we expect. What are you expecting this year? Was 2018 so great that you'd like to do it all over again? Or, perhaps, so bad you'd like a "do over."
Mine was too busy, but had these great rewarding moments. It was too hard, but yielded some amazing outcomes. I'd like 2019 to be lots easier and much more amazing, but usually that's not the way things go. Like many do, we had a party for some old friends on New Year's Eve to celebrate the end of a year and the beginning of a new one. It's kind of like we turn our heads away from the past, with its mistakes and old goals, and fix our eyes on the new beginning ahead. One that is still perfect, still pregnant with possibilities.
For good or bad, we will deal with a million little things—some good, some crushingly disappointing. How we face them, how we expect them to go has so much to do with how they'll turn out. Christ is quoted in Mark 11, "I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." There it is. We are to have an expectation—a belief that the things we pray for will be received by us through faith. So, have faith, my friends. Pray and believe. Remember the words of some old salt from the past, "We can not direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails."
Sail on,
Nancy
