So, how’s everyone’s new year going? Recovered from the holidays yet? I hope you had a lovely New Year’s! I did. We sat down as a family and wrote down the things we loved about 2016 and six goals for each of us in 2017. I am really liking this read-your-goals-out-loud-every-day thing.
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a huge fan of writing down what you want to add to your life in the upcoming year. If we don’t plant it, we can’t reap it. I have lots of things I want to carry into 2017 or to add to my life in 2017. Lately though, I’ve been thinking about what I need to let go of this year. Kinda like the difference between sins of omission vs. commission—it’s easy to forget the omission ones. I make goals but rarely do I make let-go’s.
A friend and I were talking about shame recently and how we both struggle with hanging onto shame. That’s something I’m working on letting go of. I’m passionate about mistakes not defining who I am. It’s amazing how many things I’ve moved from the category of “power” to “thing” this year—for example, money. Mistakes are like that. They’re just a thing. They don’t have the power to define who you are—especially if you accept that you’re human and make mistakes and go through the process of asking for and accepting God’s forgiveness and then learn from them.
God’s forgiveness is amazing when you really think about it. If it’s been a while since you first became a believer, take a minute and just remember what it was like to carry your sins all by yourself. Then meditate on God’s forgiveness: God says He takes our sins away as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). He gives full redemption (Ps. 130:7)–I LOVE this concept. It means that any mistake or sin I’ve ever committed can be filled up with God’s redemption and turned into something that’s actually beneficial for me AND for the person I sinned against.
A lot of us had a less than perfect 2016. It’d be easy to carry our mistakes with us into 2017. But we don’t have to—and, in fact, carrying them will weigh us down and make us less able to do well in 2017. We can choose to fix them—to admit our mistakes, ask God for forgiveness and redemption and then do our best to address the issue/broken relationship and to learn what we need to learn—forgive (others or, more often in my case, myself), and then focus on 2017.
What are you hanging onto from 2016 that you can let go of?
