The year 2011 goes down in the history of my life as the toughest year yet. And where there are challenges, there are lessons to be learnt. So here are the top 3 lessons I learnt this past year:
Lesson #1
Love at first sight does, indeed, exist
Okay, well, maybe not love at first sight, really…because you grow to love someone. But, to adopt a well-coined phrase, “recognition of potential at initial observation” or “ropaio” can actually happen. What happens after the ropaio is another story 🙂 Taking a broad sweep of my year, this lesson came at a time when my belief in romantic love and subsequent marriage was waning. I still think that Hollywood and its rom-com industry has done my generation a great disservice, but now I believe, again, that God can write even better love stories!
Lesson #2
Unfaithfulness to God is never self-contained
The decisions we make in the privacy of our own minds have repercussions in the world of our influence. The reality of every individuals influence is an exciting notion when we are leading others in the right direction. On the other hand, it becomes a bitter pill when those we care about are hurt by our bad choices. It’s never just about me.
Lesson #3
My parents are human
A child’s parents are as God to them; their word is law; they are provider. I was blessed to be raised by God-fearing parents and it’s easy to, in a sense, idolize “perfect” parents. But one of the marks of mature adulthood is a healthy relationship with your parents. They make mistakes. They hurt each other and they hurt you. They can no longer provide for your needs. You may even disagree with them at times. And yet, in spite of these things, you still love and honor them.
So simple now that I’ve summarized them, but it took a painful year filled with disappointment and regret to learn these lessons. To be fair, I also experienced encouragement to buttress the disappointment, salvation for my regrets and hope that runs deeper than the pain.
I have a new determination coming out of my 2011 experience, and that is that no matter what 2012 brings, I want to go it with Jesus!
Amen! And I’m glad for #1 😉
I know! Me too 🙂
Hmm, you used a different word than me. In my reflection of 2011, I said that it was the ‘worst’ year of my life. But I didn’t write it out as a list of the lessons I learned, I wrote it as a series of events. A series of fortunate or unfortunate events, I’m not quite sure. Maybe it would be more productive if I actually pulled out lessons from my reflection.
#1 What God calls you to, He’ll bring you through- I think I was more convinced that I would pass the NCLEX (nurses’ licensing exam) than fail it. Why would God bring me through the pain of the nursing program in order for me to fail the licensing exam? But that’s why I was scared. I didn’t think I had the confidence needed to be a nurse. Even though God had already brought me through the nursing program, I didn’t have peace knowing He would bring me through a nursing career.
#2 In our weakness, God’s strength is made perfect-My nursing skills and knowledge were weak. I was a new grad. But from the very beginning of this job I was getting compliments on different things I would do. God gave me nursing knowledge that I didn’t know I had until the time came for it to be necessary.
#3 Out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks-No matter how nice you are on the outside, if the inside/motives are not nice, it will eventually come out, and not usually in a desired manner.
I hope you don’t mind that I used your space for my reflection time.
I don’t mind at all, Erin.
Perhaps you would enjoy blogging??
I’ve tried a few times. Here’s the current state: http://erynnmay.blogspot.com/
aight, now, all you have to do is blog 😉
go for it!
Amen, wonderful lessons. Here’s to 2012 and going with Jesus.