When Winter Becomes Home

Happy New Year guise! :-)

I am  laughing because I finished this post, my computer crashed and I lost it. ALL OF IT. It didn't save. And yes I am laughing because this year I choose to laugh through all my "problems", because I know there are going to be quite a number of them (starting with all the money that needs to appear in my life by October, wacha tu!). And this happened on Monday. Today is Thursday. Ummm... Clearly...

I am just going to try and reconstruct it, for all I know, maybe what I had said in the original post was not what was meant to be said,

"Just because things didn't work out the way you wanted doesn't mean they didn't work out the way God panned."

~Sarah Jakes Roberts~

I came across Sarah Jakes sometime back on Instagram. This girl really is the poster child for that quote above. Pregnant at 13, married, divorced now re-married.. all this coupled with the added pressure of being the daughter of one of the biggest preachers in the world. Yet she's still standing. Flourishing in fact.

One of the things that has always gotten me through some of the tougher periods of my life is knowing that it could have been worse. And for some people, it is indeed worse. Whenever things are feeling crap in your life, it usually feels a lot like Winter. Its cold, its dreary. It snows and rains a lot. Everything seems dull. You never want to go outside. And you feel all these things inside your heart. And this state of feeling can easily become home for you. You can easily become comfortable existing in that state of constantly walking with a cloud over your head.

So if this year hasn't started out great for you for whatever reason (and i do mean whatever reason - big or small) - stop and remember, its just a season. Even Winter doesn't last forever. So don't allow that winter that you feel to become home for you. As one of my bible school teachers (yes, i went to bible school)- "Cry a river, build a bridge and get over it!"

I mostly celebrate my new year on my birthday - it's when I'll set out a lot of the things that I would want to do or accomplish for the next year. This year has forced me to do it in January, for various reasons, but one of the things I have purposed for myself is to be happy. Actually, to be joyful. Coz happiness is dependent on your situation. Joy comes from your soul.

And I would encourage you to do the same. Purpose to have Joy this year. After all, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it :-)

Have a joyful year, wont you? :-)




Ps: If you are struggling to keep track of all the good things that are happening to you despite whatever storm you may feel like you are in - make a point of writing down at least one good thing that happened to/for you each day. Something that made you smile. Fold it and keep it away. Do this everyday, and  store them in the same place. Whenever you are feeling really run down, or even at the end of the year, take out those notes and read through them. You'll realize it's not always so bad after all :-)