So, what have you accomplished this year? What resolutions did you make and keep? Or not? These are the questions we ponder at the end of year and it is a good time to assess your accomplishments at work, at home, in your personal life or in any area important to you. Doing a spiritual checkup may make sense to you or it might not. If it does, here are some subjects to examine and think about:
- Have you made allowance for another person’s faults and forgiven anyone who offended you? Remember that God forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, your compassion for others should allow you to forgive others who might have knowingly offended you or perhaps they didn’t know. Now is the time to clear the air between the two of you so that you can move past your anger, animosity or hostility against the person.
- Compassion and love. These bind us all together in faultless harmony. Allow the peace that comes from God to take charge of your mind and heart. The solution to your hurt feelings is to quickly forgive those who have hurt you. Don’t wait for weeks agonizing over conflict that is causing you to have sleepless nights. In this coming year, try to resolve conflicts as soon as possible.
- Prayer Life. A consistent prayer life will help you to stay grounded doing the positive things important to your life and your family’s life. Pray consistently and faithfully for the needs of others. But most of all, learn to pray in faith, standing on the promises of God’s words and believing in him for things to occur in your life as well as for others.
- Finally, if you are serious about in-depth change, growth in your spiritual life and development in character, spend time with God every day of your life. Don’t make changes unless you can benefit from the change. Change for the sake of trying something new can impede life’s happiness.
There is a biblical verse that says, “Search me, oh God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts and lead me in the way of everlasting.” Wise words to ponder along with this quote which would make a nice toast for the new year: “Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” So, let’s vow to make this coming year the best that life has to offer. Never Give Up! Never Give Up! Never Give Up!
By Chaplain Ghosten
chaplain@lhp.net
