Year End Reflection
As we walk through Christmas week and into the New Year, this is a natural time to do some extended reflecting. How has 2022 gone? How would you describe it? What are some of the spiritual lessons you learned? How have you grown in your walk with Jesus?
I’ve talked about my practice of weekly reflection here. It’s not hard to take and apply those concepts to the entire year. One tool I use weekly that helps in the yearly practice is the “The Next Right Thing Guided Journal”. Since I’ve been writing in it for the entire calendar year, I can use it to look back and jog my memory on what things were going on. A year can feel like a long period of time to remember what happened!
Wins?
One category you might add to your yearly reflection is this: What wins can you celebrate? For me, I’m celebrating that I stepped out in faith and did five speaking engagements this year. I’ve done some public speaking in the past, but this was definitely more than usual. I spoke twice at my church’s mom’s group, led a seminar at our church spring retreat, was the main speaker at a church women’s event, and spoke at a Bible study for young adults. They were great experiences and I feel like I grew a lot in my skills as a communicator. Most of the topics I spoke on where the types of things I write about here. In the coming year, one of my goals is to move beyond the comfort zone of my home church and try to speak at other local MOPS groups or other women’s groups.
I also finished a book proposal for the book I’m working on that walks through the BUILD process of using journaling and spiritual disciplines to grow in our faith. I made a connection with someone in the publishing industry through my pastor and got some great feedback from him on my proposal, which was very encouraging. Unfortunately, in order to be traditionally published, I would need a much larger audience. My other option is to self-publish, which I may pursue in 2023.
Changes or Challenges?
What changes or challenges did you encounter in 2022? One large change in my own life was my taking a larger role in my father’s life. He just turned 80 and lives out of state. He visited over the summer, which gave me a good chance to understand how he’s doing. As a result, I’ve gotten more involved in helping him manage his finances. It has given me opportunity to practice journaling and using spiritual disciplines to process through some of the changes in that relationship. The BUILD process is very much something that came out of my own need to work through issues from my past! If you would like an overview of it, you can find that here.
How about you? What wins can you celebrate? What challenges have you overcome this past year?
If you’d like some further reflection prompts, this article has some good ones.
Have a wonderful Christmas! See you in 2023!