Year End Musing
How are you moving into 2025?
As I get older, it’s funny how certain things increase in value and others are easy to let go. I value eye contact, deep relationships and kissing Jackson’s face. I value the sharing of good food with people who are important to me. I value making my home one of welcome, love, warmth, and safety. I value investing effort in becoming a woman that is more healed, confident, and able to sparkle with life and kindness. I value more than I can list. And, above all, I value becoming the woman God created me to be. Even when it challenges me and requires change.
I’m learning to let go what others think of me and accept it’s none of my business anyway. I let go of worry over a kitchen floor that is eternally dirty from big dog feet and dog hair on my bed. I’m learning to let go of my need for perfection. Those are more difficult to achieve than they may sound.
Lectio365 has been a big part of my journey since early 2020. It’s an app with meditations for both morning and evening. Yesterday, Lectio asked as I look back on 2024 to reflect on what God has done in, through, and for me. When I look at facts rather than through a lense of self-judgment, I am amazed. Have there been bumps? Oh my goodness, YES. Never look at me and think I’ve got it all together.
How am I moving into 2025? Not with grand resolutions of losing my extra 20 pounds and never having a glass of wine again. I’m moving into 2025 with HOPE.
Taking the time to reflect on 2024 has been valuable. The God who provided, protected, healed, taught, and sustained me is the same one I take into next year. The Bible instructs us to “remember” over 200 times. I can head into 2025 because I remember God’s faithfulness to me in the hardest years of my life. Hebrews 11: 1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”. I don’t know what 2025 will bring me but I feel on the cusp of….something. I have faith and I feel HOPE.
Quoting directly from Lectio365 is my conviction for 2025:
“As I orient myself to the new year and step over it’s threshold, my sense of meaning comes from being part of a bigger, more beautiful story than I could ever have imagined. There is a master planner and a master plan. My life has purpose. I am created for him and through him and he is (still) holding me together. He is dwelling within me by his Spirit, and together we are beautifying the earth and building for eternity.”
That is the message of hope. Of living Life with intention. Intention to grow, change, learn, and create beauty with passion. Intention to love truly and well. To challenge and accept. I don’t want to look back on my life and think I just sat there and let it happen. That I wasted it. I have dreams. A bucket list. Challenges to overcome. I’m not finished with this life. I’m going to LIVE it and squeeze every ounce of love and joy I can. Even on days that are hard.
How are you moving into 2025? I’d love to hear your thoughts………
