A tradition I’ve kept for several years now has been to highlight my day, every day, with a specific color. I factor in everything from “how much work did I accomplish” to “how many uncontrollable disasters did I either avert or walk face-first into.” Great days are marked with red, good days with yellow, neutral days with green, bad days with blue, and terrible days with purple…
Looking back on the year, there’s one stretch of blue and purple that sticks out like a sore thumb. A few blue days are sprinkled about, and several green days where nothing noteworthy happened at all. The rest of the year is abundant with yellow and red.
I consider that a tremendous blessing.
Others, if they marked calendars of their own, might have several week-long stretches of blue/purple, where the days were filled with misery, heartache, anger, or despair. I had one such week this year, and a handful of other one-off days where it seemed like nothing went right. In the moment, when I was surrounded by the darkness, it felt like I might never see the sunshine again. But now, looking back on the whole of it, I can see those bad/terrible days were the exception, not the rule.
It helps, because I know I’m going to be grading the day every night before I retire, that I make a conscious effort to have a good day, to forgive, to be more patient, to remain calm, to be more prayerful, etc. I WANT a yellow/red day, so I work to make that happen. One thing I’ve learned, however, is I can’t often control what others do to me, or what circumstances come my way, all of which play a big role in determining how I feel about any given day day. What I CAN do is control how I respond to people and circumstances.
My year in review can be summed up with a simple refrain: The Lord has been mindful of me. That’s my takeaway from 2024: God didn’t calm every storm, but He did pull me through every one, and for that He has my thanks.
~Matthew