Reflections of 2020 – New Beginnings

As I reflect on 2020, I am not focused as much on the pandemic and all the crazy weird things that happened in the year. I don’t mean to downplay them or the challenges they caused. Nothing was what anyone expected and many normals or traditions have been rocked to the core. I acknowledge the hard times, but choose not to stay there. My belief is that the hard times help to refine us into something stronger or more mature. As I reflect, I am drawn to remember all the ways that 2020 has created new beginnings in my life and has refined my family. I invite you to join me in my reflections of 2020 and think of how you have been refined during the year.

I was listening to The John Maxwell Leadership Podcast recently and was reminded of John Maxwell’s annual time for reflection. He spends the last couple weeks of every year reviewing what went well and what didn’t and setting himself up for success for the upcoming year. He reviews his calendar and daily habits and makes sure it lines up with the priorities and goals he has for his life. I had been reminded a few times lately to slow down and do the same sort of process.

Reflections on Words of the Year

A few years ago, a close friend mentioned that she chooses a word for each year. This was part of her process to get the year kicked off right. At first, it seemed like a foreign concept to me. The more I prayed about it, I ended up with a word. I don’t remember all the words of the years, but I definitely remember my last 2 year’s words. 

My word for 2019 was Faith. 2019 was a year that was a faith walk. I didn’t understand any of it. However, we took each step in faith and did as we felt the Lord was calling us to do. It was an incredibly stressful year with a TON of transition in our lives. In spite of the difficulty, we were blessed by being faithful.

My “word” for 2020 was “New Beginnings”. I know that’s two words. That’s kind of what I thought at first, too. In my reflections of 2020, I see that it ended up being the theme in my husband’s and my life.

New Beginnings

In January, I was still adjusting to our new life in our new location. Our kids were starting at their new school. We were beginning to venture out and explore our new area by identifying where the local shops were and which places we were going to visit for what needs. 

New Beginnings made sense in that regard. I thought our year was going to consist of meeting new people, developing new friendships, and establishing roots in our new community. I didn’t realize at the time that New Beginnings was going to me so much more to me at the end of the year.

Also, in January, I kept getting messages that I needed to slow down and readjust my aim before I could be launched to the next place God wanted me. One friend recommended a book about that message. Another friend recommended a book that said to determine your #1 deep down goal. It said to be open to God taking you on a different journey than you expect to reach that goal.

I had other friends contact me out of the blue to say they were praying for me. They reminded me to be open to what God wants us to do. Just because something is familiar, it doesn’t mean it’s the way we are supposed to go. This caused me to spend more time asking God what he wanted. I didn’t want to make a mistake in where he was leading me.

Reflections of 2020 – Discovering Who I am and What Is Most Important to Me

It was a very interesting time for me. I was really spending a lot of time reflecting on my priorities and being open to what God wanted for our future. I started to think more and more about starting this blog, but I didn’t really know what it was going to be. In February, I was on a retreat and really felt that I needed to share some of my experiences and lessons with more people regarding family and marriage.

When COVID-19 shut down everything and we were told to shelter in place, it felt like a pause button was pressed so I could reprioritize our family time and focus on what was most important to us. It also gave me time to begin creating the website so I could launch this blog a few months later.

Had to be Willing to Lay Down Our Dreams on the Alter

In the spring, I had to be willing to let go of everything that I thought I knew for our future and put it all in God’s hands. We had been part of a business where we had grown to know God and have a relationship with Him. We thought that was our avenue to grow God’s kingdom and be a positive influence on the world. God showed me that what I thought was the plan for our future had actually become my focus. 

What I thought was God’s plan for my future had become a priority. At the time, I didn’t think it had a position above God in my life. I learned that I had entanglements to meetings on my calendar and wasn’t willing to skip them when God was telling me to write, instead. It was painful to let go. It meant that I had to let go of so many things that were very important to me. I had to keep reminding myself that following God’s will was most important. I may not know what the future holds, but I need to follow God one step at a time where He wants me to go.

Through that time, I realized that the things that I thought I had that were so important to me, weren’t really what I thought they were. It was a lot of introspection and evaluating who I am, what I am supposed to me doing, and how to be better through it all. It was a lot of learning and critical thinking about myself and the world around me. I spent a lot of prayer time asking God to lead me through and show me all the areas about myself that need to change.

Reflections of 2020 – Pruning Hurts, but Is Vital for New Growth

During this same difficult time, other relationships in my life became strengthened. My marriage and relationships with the kids are stronger. Most of our other family relationships are stronger. We get to have more family time. I realized that I already had stronger friendships than I realized. Once I started I scheduling the time to pour into them, they became best friends. My relationship with my bible teacher has strengthened. We’ve started to make friends in our new community.

I learned that in order to have new beginnings, sometimes you need to be pruned a little. It hurts and is uncomfortable, but is necessary to be able to nourish the new growth. I learned that there’s a whole lot more to this world than I had known before. Maybe I still don’t know all that God has in store for me, but I do know that he’s given me a love and grace for others that I had not fully known before. Now, I want to help others to know Him better and get to experience the love, peace, and joy of the relationship the way I do.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Gal 5:22-23

How about you? What does your reflections of 2020 look like? Do you have ways it has refined you to become better or stronger? Have you had to let go of something important to let God give you something better?