I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
This past year was sweet (just like my title said). I spent it with great friends who I shared a million laughs with and a million more memories with. This year was seriously unforgettable.
I had ups and downs (just like every other human being on the planet), but the good far outweighed the bad.
I look back in pure awe of everything that God taught me in a short 365 day. I am going to try to sum up the main things this past year taught me; what experiences that caused endless joy and frequent grief, but were overall blessings to have encountered, taught me. So here are the 4 major things I learned throughout 2014:
Spend time with people who add value to your life.
Throughout 2014, I found people who made me want to stay up until 2 a.m. on the porch talking about life, who made me forget all the reasons to frown and give me a thousand more reason to laugh, and who pushed me to grow in my relationship with the Lord. One of my biggest struggles, though, was to remove people from my life who were ultimately bringing me down and were not helping me to reach my fullest potential. Once I realized that people could have a negative impact on my life, I realized I needed to make some changes. It’s like what Jim Rohn says: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Want to be happy? Surround yourself with happy people. Want to be healthy? Surround yourself with healthy people. Want to become more confident? Surround yourself with confident people. Want to follow the Lord? Surround yourself with people who are also following Him.
In essence, we become more like the people we hang out with. The awesome thing about surrounding yourself with positive minded people, who have a habit of chasing the Lord with their whole heart and believe in making an impact according to His purpose, is that you’ll be inclined to grow in that positive direction as well! They will cause you to make a difference in the way you think, and consequently how you are living. Choose the people who add more value to your life!
You can't do it all and you don't have to do it all.
My goal in 2014 was to make every single day count and while trying to accomplish that goal, I wore myself thin. I was busy, stressed and mostly exhausted. I thought I would find joy in the quantity of the things I could accomplish - but, boy was I wrong. The more tasks I added to my agenda - clubs, volunteer projects, jobs, social events, leadership positions - the further I fell away from what I really wanted to accomplish. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to add quality to my days, and I went about it in the wrong way. I learned that instead of adding quantity to my schedule, I should learn to increase the quality of the things I already am doing.
Losing is sometimes the biggest win you'll ever have.
Looking back on 2014, some of my biggest losses stare me in the face - I tore my ACL, I forgot who my true friends were, I tore my ACL again, I missed the mark in school --- the list goes on. Yet, I feel like whenever I faced a major loss in my life, I think that's when Jesus was winning big. When life gave me a huge blow, I learned to look more to my steady Father and hold on less to this wobbly earth. When I lost things in my life that distracted me from the cross, Heaven was winning because I was coming home.
So this year, I pray that you lose. I pray that you let old habits and destructive tendencies stay in the past. I pray you lose time serving, loving, and laughing. I pray that you lose the things that distract your eyes and heart from your Father. It stings. It is painful. And it wrecked me at the time. And now I sit here, wrecked by grace, confident that it is worth it. Lose yourself for Jesus. Stop trying to create yourself, and start looking to the Creator.
God is not something, He is the ONLY thing.
This one is probably the BIGGEST thing I learned this entire year, and am still going to be learning throughout 2015. God is the only thing that is constant in life. Through ups and downs - through friend changes, through joyful times, through injuries, through success and through failure - God is the same. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. I have been learning that God is my rock and He is constant and steady. Learning how to rely on His love and strength alone has been the biggest blessing throughout this past year.
Here are some things that made 2014 so SWEET:
I went to prom for the first time,
I found my dream job and my dream college,
I learned what it looked like to be fully devoted to serve the Lord,
I found a church that praises God like no other,
and finally, I figured out who my best friends were.
Praying 2015 is filled with as much joy as 2014.
