Shuck: Your new year can be a good one

How was your year during 2023? What happened in your life? To many of us, thoughts of the past year were those of good fortune and happiness -- one filled with happy memories. To others it was a year to be forgotten. Are we now looking forward to another new beginning, or, are we already perceiving that the upcoming new year will the same as the last one? If we're looking for the worst, the self-fulfilling prophesy will probably materialize. So will we look forward, or backward?

Those are all questions upon which we can meditate. Whether we were content with how things went last year, or whether we are disheartened, we need to examine ourselves, and our lives, and ask if we want things to change. Perhaps not. The point of reflection is to find out if those happenings can be changed, ask how, and why they occurred. Most of all, we ought to see how we have handled them, what was our perspective, and who's fault was it, besides ours.

There are some who never find anything good in the world. Regardless of how cheerful we try to be, the individual has a sour outlook and can drag us down with him/her. Jackson owned his own business in landscaping and he did a relatively good job, however, he was always down and out. If he broke or damaged something in someone's yard, he always had an excuse -- one that relieved him from responsibility. One of his customers, Sherry, kept him on as one of her landscaping crew because she needed his help -- knowing that he was the cause of his own failure in business. Jackson's life seemed relatively normal and he had plenty of reasons for happiness. However since he always looked for something to be wrong -- it often was. Sherry wonders what his plans are for the New Year as he tries to sell his equipment and get a job working for someone else. He is presently working for another company, while deciding whether to discontinue his business. As usual, Jackson is constantly finding fault with the other employees that also work at the same establishment. God only knows how long he will last at that location as a member of their team, because he continues with his fault finding. Sherry doubts that Jackson sees his error of negativity, as he consistently blames his problems on another person or thing. She shakes her head as she politely listens to his stories of woe. In Jackson's mind he's had a bad year but doesn't know why.

Janet, on the other hand, has experienced a truly problematic year, according to the looks of outside circumstances. Yet she would tell you that it was wonderful. Rather than concentrate on her hardships and sadnesses, she chooses to keep a smile on her face and look forward to a better year. I emphasize the word, chooses, because we have a choice, at least in how we perceive what happens. How we see anything is how it is in our mind. Often when I have bid people to have a merry Christmas, they have answered, as I do, "I will" and they go on to say -- "I will have a great Christmas because I choose to, regardless of what occours." The same outlook pertains to "our" New Year. In spite of how things look, in the eyes of the world, we can reach inside ourselves and realize that all good things come from above, anyway. James 1:17 tells us that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." If we reach inside ourselves and truly count our blessings and good fortune, we'll see that, we too, can say that our New Year is one for which to be grateful. We never need to feel that we have experienced such a traumatic happening that we brood over it allowing it to destroy our outlook. Instead, let's frame our mind with love and eager expectation of good things, and this year can, indeed, be a good one.