2020 changed us.
We faced a worldwide pandemic, political unrest, natural disasters, death, financial ruin, health scares, and toilet paper shortages. It’s up to us to take those moments of hardship and turn them into lessons learned that will ultimately change our lives moving forward.
Here are 20 things I learned from 2020:
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- Remember Who is ultimately in control of your life and how little control you actually have. “I can rest in the fact that God is in control. Which means I can face things that are out of my control and not act out of control.” ~ Lysa TerKeurst
- Determine what your priorities are. Time is a limited resource. Spend it with intention. Life can change overnight and you’ll regret wasting so much of it on things that didn’t really matter. This year showed us how much time we can actually have for what’s important if we keep our priorities in order.
- Expect the unexpected. Keep your faith strong, your mind clear, and your body fit. A day may come when you need to call on them to get you through the unexpected. Self-care is necessary to be at our best.
- No one is going to make time for you to pursue your dreams. No one is going to say they scheduled a weekend, afternoon, or hour for you to go after your goals or enjoy a hobby that brings you a sense of fulfillment. You have to make time for yourself.
- You aren’t ever going to do enough for some people. No matter how hard you try, some people aren’t going to like what you say or do. Others won’t like what you don’t say or don’t do. So act according to your faith instead of trying to please the masses.
- Doing “as little as I can to get by” is going to add up and eventually topple down on you in the form of shallow faith, unrealized dreams, unhappy homes, and unfulfilled expectations. It’s impossible to be the best at everything you do – but if you’re only doing the bare minimum you’ll lose things and people along the way.
- Take inventory of your life periodically. If you don’t, you’ll turn around and decades have passed and you haven’t lost the weight, reconciled the relationship, padded the savings account, or started your business.
- Positive change doesn’t happen overnight. It happens over time by taking daily, little steps in the right direction.
- Make memories in the mundane. Don’t wait for perfect timing. Life happens in the messy moments – not the Instagram-worthy snapshots. Having everything shut down, taken away, and separated from us has forced us to find joy in the everyday.
- Find things to do and ways to grow that feed your soul. Don’t depend on an event, person, job, or anything outside of yourself to bring you joy or happiness. Lean into your relationship with Christ and seek His guidance toward things that fulfill you and your life’s purpose. True contentment only comes through Him.
- Exercise gratitude. Things we took for granted in 2019 became our deep desires in 2020. Coffee with a friend, family activities, travel, visiting our elderly relatives, etc. Quit expecting and learn to appreciate.
- Difficult times act as a spotlight revealing the truth about life and people. For some our faith showed cracks that broke way into fears or sustained us through the darkness. Our relationships fizzled or grew stronger. Our spending habits became regrets or saved us from the unknown.
- Stay creative. Never stop growing. We lost our ability to travel but found the opportunity to explore new hobbies, recipes, etc. We found ourselves with more time for creative pursuits than ever before. New careers were started out of necessity and outlets of creativity became income streams.
- Have things to look forward to. Having something constructive to plan for like a vacation or an event will give our minds a positive focus. But don’t get so set on it that your world comes crashing down if your plans need to be changed.
- Life is no respecter of persons. Money, illness, and ruin don’t only affect the evil people in the world. True, noble, godly people will be hit just like those around them. The difference is God’s children don’t go through it alone!
- Do what you can then accept what you can’t change and make the most of it. Staying caught in a cycle of negativity due to things outside our control will only hinder anything positive we can do and steal our joy.
- Everyone is fighting a battle of some sort so be kind to those around you. You have no idea what they’ve been through, what they’re going through right now, or what they’re about to go through. Be kind. Be loving.
- Respond, don’t react. The fights that happened online, the relationships ruined – all come from words and actions taken in the emotional outbursts of life. Learn to think through before you speak or act. Be intentional with your words and actions. Remember on the other side of that screen is a living, breathing human.
- Hurt is what someone does to you. Bitterness is what you do to yourself. Relationships at every level were tested this year. I doubt any of us came through unscathed. Hurt may have separated you from some in your life but forgive and move on. In other words, you may not be able to reconcile but holding onto bitterness will affect your entire life like cancer.
- Ask how you can help those around you and then be ready to accept it yourself. Our circles grew smaller in some respects and bigger in others. We found ourselves reaching out to neighbors we had never talked to or offering help to shut-ins. Seek ways you can assist those around you – it will help to take the focus off the difficulty you’re facing yourself and shift your mind into positive changes you can make.
But the biggest lesson I have learned is that we are capable of enduring much more than we thought. For some of us, this year has been the worst we have seen in our lifetime. However, every generation has seen hardship and devastation and life has continued to move forward.
As we’ve seen clearly since we flipped the calendars to a new year, our struggles are not over. But it’s up to us to commit to affect change where we can and remember God has not been surprised by any of this. He is still on the throne – unchanged, sovereign, omnipotent!
