Monday 26 December 2016
Wednesday 21 December 2016
Tuesday 20 December 2016
New Year Resolutions
I paused on my bed, reflected on how this year has come and gone in a huff and puff.
I thought about those I had lost in the year. I have lost a brother not of the same mother but as dear to my heart as a biological brother would be.
I lost a grandfather, not a biological father of either parents, but a father in so many ways to one of them. This grandfather of mine was a gentleman and one that was very much loved by me.
I remembered my sister too, not of blood, but in ties of a genuine friendship. This sister friend lost her lover, her husband, her best friend of many, many years right before her eyes. She hurts and grieves and I hurt so much for her hurt.
I reflect also on the lives of my children and the joy that their every kiss, hug and smile bring to my sometimes achy heart. I remind myself to be grateful.
I think of my better half, my husband who loves me in the most beautiful and sometimes unbelievable manner. I remind myself to be thankful.
I think of the many goals I have been able to achieve his year by no might of mine.
I think of the many many blessings, innumerable to count.
I think of the new friendships and partnerships.
As I looked back teary and wide eyed, I just could not but say It was all you Lord.
In my place, there's a saying that goes thus. Ore ni won.
This means kindness should have a limit. It also means carefully measure the amount of kindness you give.
This is because kindness can be abused or mistaken for foolishness by ingrates.
As I struggled with the deepness of this thought, I was reminded about the love of God for humanity. How he measured not His love for humanity, withheld not His only begotten, that we might be redeemed and ransomed by His love so strong and blood so pure.
He freely gave His virtue and of His substance - so that those who did not have could receive and such that, those who had could be satisfied.
He gave without any limits, and even though the world did not accept Him nor appreciate His kindness, He gave until it poured out from His sides at Calvary.
My mind flashed back to the lowest lows in my life this year. The death of close and very much loved relatives, an abused friend and her ordeal of an unimaginable ill treatment and death threats, deaths of lives in Aleppo, terrorist attacks and more.
These and many more happenstances in the world have crushed me and others known and unknown.
Of a truth they have left many wounded, many empty and so many more numb for the inability to take any more of the darkness.
However, I am encouraged. I am encouraged that for those who have lived thus far, that there's hope for a better tomorrow. All these pains and sorrows are nothing compared to the joy that our saviors birth brings and what that means for the whole world.
It reminds me that kindness in its entirety has no limits.
It reminds me that even though death in every ramification is inevitable, we all have a glorious hope.
That even in the midst of pain and sorrows that we are able to have life and have it more abundantly.
That even though sorrow can endure for a while, Joy to the world, the saviors come.
This season is my joyful reminder.
I am reminded that I can be loving, forgiving and kind. That you can too, because you never ever know what people are going through.
So as we begin making our new year resolutions, let's resolve to be much more loving, much more kindly, much more forgiving in the new year no matter the situation.
Let's carry the message of this season into all the seasons of the coming year.
No matter what the year has thrown your way, remember that because of this season, you are the words of Angel Gabriel, blessed and highly favored.
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