Reflection over 2024

This past year has been very exciting, and I have a lot of exciting things in my life.  While 2023 was a year of a lot of change from moving to getting a new job, 2024 was the year of new experiences.  There were many things I hadn’t gotten to do before, and I am very grateful I have had these opportunities. 

One of the big things of this year, of course, was getting to meet Cole, my now fiancé.   I got to meet him in the spring, after a while of talking and texting on the phone.  It has been very good to learn more and more about him and seeing our relationship grow.  I am glad I was patient and waited for God to put a man in my life who really loves me and wants to grow in his relationship with God. 

Another big thing of this year was getting to do something I have dreamed about for years.  I got to finally complete a week of RAGBRAI.  This is the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.  I loved the opportunity to bike across the whole state of Iowa. It was so much fun to go up and down the hills and to spend time camping with my team from Des Moines for the whole week.  

I also had another great year getting to fulfill one whole year at the Job Foundation.  This was really good, and I think I have definitely grown stronger in my job, through learning more about financial literacy to then teach the kids, and through doing a better job of staying up to date on all lessons students need to finish.  I have gotten better about reaching out and working with families.  I have fallen more in love with the job, and I want to find ways to continue to get better. 

There were a few pieces of sadness that happened this past year.  No one year can be perfect, so it is important to realize any hardships one has gone through in the year, and how there are many people who have grown from these experiences.  One such sadness for my family is the loss of Doug, my parent’s neighbor and family friend.  This was very sad to experience.  Doug had been such a big light in our life and he was always so encouraging and helpful to my parents and myself.  He was gracious and funny, and he will truly be missed.  

I do have a few goals for this next year.  I really want to be better about learning more about nonprofits and the different parts of the job at the Job Foundation, so I can be better at helping those in the place where I currently work.  I want to make sure I can be a very versatile employee at the Job Foundation, and this way I can learn more about the business of nonprofits if I do ever have the opportunity to be the executive director at one.  

This next year, I also want to make sure to grow on my patience.  I am going to be getting married, and I am incredibly excited and full of anticipation for this next stage in my life.  However, I want to make sure I don’t lose any patience in preparation or in outside opinions.  I want to make sure I am respectful and kind to everyone who I am working with, even when something is not going exactly as I originally planned.  I also hope that I can do everything to be really good about preparing to be a good and loving wife to my future husband. 

Lastly, I want to make sure I spend time worshiping God.  I am not always as good about spending time in worship.  I spend my daily time with God, and I make sure to pray in the morning.  However, then I can very much be done for the rest of the day.  I then spend the rest of the day more focused on what is going on in my life and doing work related things.  I spend time listening to podcasts that are not Christ centered and I spend time listening to music, not Christ centered.  

One verse I really want to follow next year is John 4:24, which says, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  This is a good reminder to have the Holy Spirit with us all the time, and to have God’s truth in our hearts consistently.  This way I can better worship God daily and throughout the whole day.  

My challenge for you this week is to spend some time in reflection.  It is important to be able to evaluate the year and see the positives of what one was able to fulfill and complete in that year, with the Lord’s help.  There is still time in this year of 2024available to complete this challenge.  At the beginning of the year can also be a great time to be reflective.  This can help each person feel better about where they are in their personal life.