I’m baaack! I had a great Christmas break visiting both families in Maryland and in North Carolina but NOTHING beats coming back home and sleeping in our own bed. NOTHING! We ended our trip on New Years Day, and in the midst of traveling back home with 2 toddlers, I managed to find time to reflect on this past year. It was a GREAT year. I have so much to be thankful for. Even though it was a great year I also went through some hardships. But I am thankful for everything that has happened this past year, I have learned a lot. There are a few things God has revealed to me that I have learned to implement in my life. I believe these really made this past year so amazing, even though the hardships. I want to give you hope and encourage you that having an amazing year is reachable.

I’ve had to learn to speak life over situations, and myself. It’s something so simple and you might not think it makes a difference, but it does. Speaking life is as simple as speaking positively over a situation. For example, instead of dwelling on the fact that you have a cold, do what you have to do to feel better: take medicine, get some fresh air, and start speaking positively over yourself. Whining about being sick doesn’t help you. You can tell someone that you are sick and move on, do what you need to do to feel better. You start saying things like, “This will be short-lived”, “I will feel better”, or “I’m starting to feel better already”, you’ll notice your mood and your outlook on the situation start to change. It can be a little awkward and hard to remember to speak that way but once you start it becomes natural. Your mind will thank you for it.

I wrote this last year and hung it up in my kitchen so I can have a consent reminder so speak life over my life and situations.          Proverbs 18:21 ”Death and life are in the power of the tongue,…”

Something that Micah and I say all the time in our house is, “Everything you do, do it with excellence.” Micah and I live by this saying. This doesn’t mean perfection, it really means do the best you can, with what you have, with where you’re at. No matter what life throws at you, you can look back and say that you did it with the very best of your abilities.

The last thing that I want to encourage you with is to surround yourself with life-giving people. I’m not just talking about having a core group of friends – which, by the way, is really good to have. I’m also talking about having mentors in your life, like someone in your line of work, a pastor, or a teacher. When life throws a curveball at you, you’ll need that core group of friends to be there for support and a mentor to help guide you. You want people in your life who are LIFE giving, not people who drain you.

These are some of my life-giving people! My family, and our best friends John and Calee!

These are our mentors & Spiritual-Parents Pastor Chris & Pastor Erica Estrada, they are the BEST of the best!

There is so much more I could say about all three of these points. God has given us tools to use through hardships in life. These are some of the revelations that God has given to me. Implementing these in my day-to-day life has made a big difference. Even though I have had some hardships, these got me to the other side. I wouldn’t look back on those times as a dark point in my life, because my outlook has changed from speaking life over the situation. I have no regrets because I did everything with excellence. I was never alone because I surrounded myself with life-giving people.

Every year gets better and better for me because I have been getting better and better at implementing these in my life. I hope these encourage you that the best year of your life is reachable! It doesn’t take away the hardships but it can help you through them.

I would love to hear from you! What do you implement in your life to help you have a great year?