What a Difference a Year Makes

This year has been moving about its business like it HAS some business. I feel like we were just in January, and now we are in August, with only 4 months left in the year.

I usually am the type of person who has some deep self-reflection time where I think about where I am in life, where I am wanting to go, how I have progressed, and outlining monthly goals for myself, but I just haven’t really sat down this year to do any of that.

Yesterday, my church had testimonial Sunday, so people got up and talked about how God had been blessing them throughout the year. While I didn’t get up, hearing all of the testimonies was inspiring to me. People talked about new job opportunities, healing, and other BIG things in their lives. Initially, I thought about how I didn’t have anything like that to share, but as I continued to listen, I had to catch myself. We tend to look for those BIG things, but don’t always recognize or sometimes even forget how God ALWAYS blesses us, no matter how the “size” of the blessing may appear to others.

Last year around this time, and actually backing up a year or two before that, my anxiety was at an ALL TIME HIGH. The culprit: WORK. I was feeling like I couldn’t do anything right and I was always messing things up. I felt super low. Like your girl had a whole LENGTHY panic attack while at work. I think it was a combination of me trying to be and do what I thought was expected of me, and me also being the person who likes to be put together and get things right. It was a crazy time for me.

Last year around this time, I also got COVID. I of course was upset, because why me ???

However, during the time that I was in quarantine, I was able to finally slow down and relax my thoughts. In the last few days of my two week quarantine, I spent time in nature, which is something I love to do, and the peace and clarity I gained was amazing and a literal and mental breath of fresh air for me. I reflected on all of the feelings I had been feeling and prayed for peace.

Fast forward to now, and, this year has been VERY peaceful for me, work-wise! It’s not necessarily that the work has been different, because it’s still the most, but I have been handling it all much better. I have been peace and calm all up and through, and I have been okay with knowing that I am doing everything that needs to be done. Period.

Just how I was thinking during the testimonials, so often we send up prayers and are just done with them. There is no follow-up, reflection, or any of that. We pray about things and don’t even take the time to sit and see how God has answered that prayer. We are quicker, if we do at all, to acknowledge the tangible things God has blessed us with: a house, a car, new job, and things like that.

All of those things are great of course, but we don’t always recognize how God blesses us when we pray for things like peace, or patience. What does that look like??? Well…it can look like God blocking us from people who may be trying to cause chaos and mayhem in our lives, or things not happening in “our time” because God has something greater planned for us.

As we enter into this new month, let us take time to reflect a little. Are things the same as they were last year? Are things the same as they were last month? If we are in a better place, we need to take that time to acknowledge and thank God. If we are in a situation where we want things to change, give it to God and see how he operates in our lives.

Happy August, good people!! May this month be filled with many blessings!