Another day older. Another year gone. Another Christmas past us. Lots of things happened in the past year, good things and bad things.
It seems so often when I have looked back I have settled on seeing the things that didn’t happen or the things that happened that set me back or mistakes I had made. I wanted to blog more in 2015. I wanted to launch a new web site focused on leadership. I wanted to teach more about conflict resolution. Shoot, I wanted to become a millionaire/billionaire and do great, charitable things with the money. I wanted to exercise better and lose weight. I wanted to make changes that didn’t get changed. It’s easy to see all of that for so many people…I guess.
Fortunately there is the other side of the coin. There are all those things I still want to accomplish in 2016, my new year to improve and still, there are some wonderful things that have happened this past year. First and foremost, I got to spend a year with a woman I love and who adds so much richness and happiness to my life. She helps me experience joy unlike anything I’ve known most of my life. I got to travel with her. Atlanta (don’t eat the tuna salad in Atlanta), Baltimore, San Francisco, Denver and Durango and other places. I got a job that has my creative juices flowing (creative for someone with an accounting degree, anyway) and I look forward to coming to work every day. I’ve got friends that I stay in contact with that remind me I have purpose. I have continued to dream dreams. Dreams of writing. Dreams of doing things that will give me a sense of accomplishment. Dreams of building a better family. Dreams of experiencing more joy. Dreams of being the man God wants me to be.
That’s what I really want for 2016…to be the man God wants me to be. I realize that is a dangerous statement because my vision of that could be very different from His. I always see myself on the mountain top and He may see me in the valley. Heaven knows I’ve spent some time there already. Regardless, in the end, I have learned the greatest peace I know is when I let go of my desires and seek His. Doing that little thing…that is harder than expected…has brought great things to my life, my state of mind, my peace and my joy.
If someone else happens to read this, I hope 2016 will be your best year yet. I encourage you to seek God, seek His will and live in His peace.
Grace and peace.