Happy New Year blessed, brilliant, beauties!
Yes, I know you have been probably wondering “Where in the world did this woman go?!?” Well to tell you the truth, last semester was VERY busy! I was swarmed with organic chemistry practice problems, constantly writing narratives for my writing classes, volunteering at a Children’s Hospital, and I even was initiated in a sorority! Nevertheless, I am back!
The New Year comes with a sense of a freshness and hope. Maybe y’all have already written down your resolutions or changes you’d want to see happen in 2017. Although I think that is great (and quite necessary as Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.”), I think one of the most necessary things to do is to reflect.
This New Year’s Eve I found myself in my hometown church reflecting on all the things that happened in 2016. Some things good, some bad, some horrors that I never want to relive. I did not dwell on it of course but when I was young, my dad gave me a little advice that I hope to share with y’all tonight. He told me, “A mistake is only a mistake if you do not learn anything from it.” So as I sat in the row at church surrounded by men and woman worshiping God with grateful hearts, music filling not only the ears of those in attendance, but hearts, I decided that anytime I looked back on 2016, I don’t want to focus on the negatives, question God, or have a bad attitude. I was going to reflect with one goal in mind, growth.
So to the boy who broke your heart or the teacher that gave you that B+ instead of A, to that woman who didn’t hold the door open for you at the grocery store to the man who called you that racial slur, to the people who laughed at you or didn’t believe in you to those who blatantly insulted you and tried to make you feel inferior, to all the things that happened in 2016, good and bad, I challenge you to reflect, learn, let go, then most importantly, grow.
Isaiah 43: 18-1 9 says:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
Happy New Year y’all and make your way. Stay blessed, brilliant, and beautiful. OH…..and slay 2017!
<3 TD
