20 Year End Questions to Ponder

Oh what a year it’s been! Lots of ups and downs, trials and tribulations. We all thought 2020 would be a year of vision and excitement. Instead we all got smacked in the face with Covid. But we survived! It was a difficult year for so many but somehow we figured out how to do things differently and make life work in spite of masks and mandates, lockdowns and shutdowns. No matter what, God was there, the world didn’t end completely, the seasons still changed, day and night happened on schedule and Christmas came like every other year. We all made adjustments we would rather not have made but we survived, most of us anyway. In spite of the crazy, some good things happened and, rather than looking back and reflecting on the negative, I want to look at the things in my life that brought joy this year. A thankful heart is a good thing, my friend 🙂

Here are some highlights of the year:

• Our newest grandson, Benjamin Dale Lewis Goodwin, was born in January. He is already walking and an absolute joy!
• I shot the book trailer for The God Dare and I couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out 🙂
• Covid hit and the world went crazy. No one could find toilet paper. I never understood that…I mean…toilet paper??
• The Mom to Mom Podcast continued to grow in listeners. The Podcast Magazine listed us at 36 in the top 50 mothering podcasts!
• My book, The God Dare, earned back its advance and I got my first royalty check!!
• I did a 6-week Facebook God Dare Book Club and Bible Study last summer and it was a blast!
• I had knee surgery in July for a meniscus tear. It’s fine now, thank goodness.
• I started knitting again.
• I continued to deal with anxiety but, not nearly as much as in past years.

Now it’s time to pull out the annual I’m determined to do better list, the yearly look back and the firm resolve to improve.

 Because none of us are immune to possibility.

What I’ve learned is, God is not interested in my resolutions.

He wants my submission.

He requires deep obedience.

He’s looking for true disciples.

Instead of making resolutions for the future He wants me to reflect on the past year, the things I did, good and bad, the lives I touched, the life-changes I experienced. You might want to reflect too, take time to look back and maybe set some goals for the coming year.

Here are 20 questions to ponder:

1. What was the most important decision you made this year?
2. Can you list three major blessings you experienced?
3. How did you improve your life? How did you improve other’s lives?
4. What are the three best ways you used your free time? The three worst? (Okay, I’ll go…Netflix and way too much TV…)
5. What impossible dream are you believing God for?
6. What most caused you to grow and change this year?
7. Can you name the life event that had the biggest impact?
8. What extraordinary truth about you did you discover this year?
9. What new skill did you tackle?
10. This past year did you give your body all it needed to be the healthiest it can be? If not, why not?
11. What do you love doing that you’re not doing?
12. What fear conquered you this past year? What fear did you conquer?
13. What risks did you take?
14. What did you do that you want to be remembered for?
15. What can you do to make life simpler in the coming year?
16. Who do you need to forgive?
17. If a friend were giving you advice about your life, what would she say? Would she be right?
18. What dreams were born this year? Which dreams died?
19. Who did you mentor this year? Who mentored you?
20. How did your life help or impact another’s?

Love is shown by obedience. As I submit to His will in all things–physical, mental, spiritual–new patterns will emerge. God says in His word, “You will have no other gods before me” yet daily we bow down to many other gods, idols, and we hardly realize it.

Our idols? Food. Money. Security. People. Time. We say our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit yet if we really, truly believe this why do we make the choices we make? Every January we resolve to get healthy and lose weight yet when temptation roars in, once again we’re unable to resist and year after year we remain the same.

To know and not to do means not really to know.

Whatever realm you struggle with, and we all struggle, look to the word for truth to set you free. If you know your eating/spending/trusting habits are unhealthy, the Lord can bring you deep truth and deeper conviction to strengthen you in your journey. Whatever it is, He’ll reveal it. Our job is simply to obey, submit, pick up our cross and become true disciples.

And only by putting submission in the place of resolutions, will we find real change.

And we will change the world.

I pray you have a safe, happy (and submitted) New Year! Here’s to 2021, the real beginning of a new decade!

xoxo