How Was Your 2014?

It’s impossible to prepare well for the future without reviewing and learning from the past. This might have been a great year for you, or a horrible year. But whether or not it has a lasting impact depends largely on how you bring it to a close.God wants to do some special things for you and through you this next year. But first, he wants you to see how he’s done that this last year. I’m a goal setter and planner. But I also love to keep past blessings alive by reviewing them. Here's my process of reviewing the past in order to plan for the future.HighsIt is amazing how quickly we forget our blessings. One setback in life is enough to rob some of their joy, mainly because they have blessing amnesia. Those who have made gratitude a habit of life have learned to keep their blessings alive by remembering and reviewing. For me, I try to make it a daily process and it's part of my prayer time…reviewing God’s blessings of the day before and thanking him.But I do this in a bigger way every year. I get my calendar out and pull up pictures on my computer and try to identify my “top ten” moments, events, accomplishments and blessings. It’s a wonderful few hours of reminiscing.LowsBut life is not just about good times. Our best of times are built on challenges and disappointments.Maybe you’d rather just forget the lows of this last year, but those who are willing to recall and process their disappointments, handle them best. It’s impossible to forget anything, altogether. So when we attempt to forget tough times, we only bury them in our subconscious, and the negativities hidden beneath the surface come out in attitudes and future choices.So the best way to handle painful memories is to face them. I write them down and process them this way:•  Openly confess wrongs•  Identify what happened with foolish decisions•  Forgive those who have hurt or offended•  Grieve over loss and painWhen processed properly, our lows usually produce more good than highs.LessonsWinston Churchill said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” I think we fail to learn because we don’t try.This last year is full of lessons for you. Some of them flow from your lows, some from your highs, and some just from observing others or the monotony of daily life. What did you learn this last year? What are the things you want to keep doing? What are the things you want to avoid? Write those lessons down…make a list of at least five. Then pray over the list and ask God to use them in your life.–––––––––––––Once you’ve processed the past, you are ready to plan for the future. I’ll talk about that in my next post.What were your highs, lows, and lessons?