23 Lessons from 2023

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

Making this a yearly tradition to reflect and recollect.

2022 version is here.

23 lessons, in no particular order:

1. Time does not heal all wounds, time with God does.
2. Some things will break your heart to clear your vision.
3. What matures slowly will last long.
4. Vulnerability deepens relationships. You need honest people in your life.
5. Doing more does not mean you are becoming more. We can be busy doing the non-essential things. We can spend years climbing up a ladder only to find out it’s the wrong wall.
6. Life is done by design — either designed by God and you, or others.
7. Those who are truly rich are those who can afford to design their life, time, and systems. There is room for rest, play, connection, and exploration.
8. Don’t obsess over reaching a specific outcome, but reflect on the person you want to become.
9. Let people help you. 🤗
10. “The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
11. One decision can settle a thousand decisions (i.e. choosing a lifetime partner). Choose well.
12. Appreciate the here and now, because everything in this life is so fragile. Cherish your family, express love, whether in words, gestures or acts of service. (Side note: this a miracle year for our family, and the year that we’ve also been vocal in saying sorry. Writing this makes me cry.)
13. Break easy, break often, break in private. Brokenness always comes before breakthrough. The Lord won’t allow us to break without a purpose.
14. Be confident and strong, but also gentle and humble in heart.
15. Creativity without anointing is just gift, but creativity WITH anointing bears good fruit for the church.
16. Notes from my journal, September 2023: Most of the time God’s timing wouldn’t make sense in the process, for most days grace looks a lot different than what l’ve expected but maybe really humility and gratefulness is where I have to position myself even when what I sowed and planted seems like it’s not bearing fruit at all. Waiting and trusting God comes with surrendering our expectations, getting frustrated but laying it at the feet of Jesus. It’s where we enter His glorious rest.
17. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. A lifetime need and skin-saver. Also, wipes. 🤪
18. You will never make yourself feel better by making someone else feel worse, and you’ll never make yourself bigger by making someone else feel small. My plank may not look like your plank..but we all have a plank in our eye. We’re not in church to be churchy, we’re in church to represent Christ.
19. Took me years to learn this framework: Pain + blame equals bitterness; Pain + careful reflection w/ God equals beauty. Beauty = light and purification, healing that’s beneficial not just to self, but also others.
20. Keep being faithful, without everyone being for you. Keep being faithful without everyone understanding what you’re called to do. Keep being faithful, without knowing how God will make a way.. without knowing what the results will be on the other side of your yes.
21. Intentional walks in UP have done me good. Allowed me to reflect on my health, my decisions, and my overall well-being. Taking little steps is better than not taking any steps at all. 🚶‍♀️
22. Do not despise the humble parts of your life. It is God’s avenue to do glorious things 🩶
23. More can happen in God’s YES than in decades of my own doing. Every single triumph I have up to this day is Your work, not mine.

“Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.” — Psalm 116:7–8 NIV 🤍

Hello, 2024!