As a mother, and as a member of the church, it is easy to feel guilty for things, which you really shouldn’t. Often though striving to do our best it is easy to fall short of our own expectations. We may simply see that we stopped ten feet (or a hundred) short of the finish line, but fail to look back and see the twenty miles that we have run. The journey to perfection is a road that we must keep climbing on. Sometimes it is important to look back and see the positive changes and the growth that you have gone through.
Often I will wonder how I can get through certain periods in my life, only to look back and be much stronger at the end of them. The Lord does not abandon us. He is there to strengthen us in our trials and in our desires to improve ourselves. We can do ourselves a disservice by failing to acknowledge His help through difficult times. He loves each one of His children, and He is there helping us through difficult times.
The stretching that trials bring us may be a difficult process. This year has been a year in which I have been stretched. Emotionally I have struggled as I have watched my youngest two children struggle with health issues. I have struggled with my self-worth and staying in tune with the spirit, but as I look back at this past year, I realize that the Lord was with me the entire year. I never walked my difficult times completely alone.
As you take the time to consider goals for the next year, take the time to see how much you have grown since last year. Do not look at your goals and consider yourself a failure if you did not achieve them. Look at how much closer you are to achieving that goal. Look at the lessons you learned and what obstacles got in your way. You may determine that the goal you originally made is not the right one for you to be working on at this time. As you do this you may be gratified to realize how much you have learned, how much you have grown and how much you have been blessed this past year.
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