Welcome Twenty Sixteen!

This year has just flown by! It seems only a short time ago 2014 was winding down and we were getting ready for 2015. Now 2015 is over and I'm left to reflect on everything I've done the last year and the goal of loving and serving that I set one year ago. I had no idea that God had bigger plans for serving then I thought possible. I always approach my goal word with much thought and I think I was inspired. 

This year I learned what it truly felt like to turn outward and serve those around me. For a few years I needed to take time for myself but last year I felt I needed to start serving others and sharing my experiences with them. 

When I was called as the relief society president my main goal was to make sure all the girls not only know I care, but I would show them. It took me a bit to get my groundings but as I have visited and learned about each girl I can't remember a time when I didn't feel how much God loves them. I am still working on it but I feel like I make significant progress this year. 

I have also learned that in order to serve others you have to love yourself. I not only have learned more about turning outward but looking inward to accept and embrace everything about myself. I'm pretty great and it's time I start recognizing my strengths rather then my flaws. In doing that, I am a much happier person. It's a work in progress but it's coming 

The new word for this year is trust...in thinking about what I needed to improve on this is what kept coming to my mind. 

The process of learning to trust again started in June shortly after I was called, the bishop asked me how many people I actually trust fully in the ward and I realized I didn't have very many. So this year I'm beginning to knock down my walls again and hopefully allow myself to be completely open. 

Trust can take on many forms but one I certainly need to learn is that it's okay to not be okay all the time. I'm the type of person who wants to reach out and help everyone else, rarely however do I allow others to help me. I think everyone does this to an extent but what I hope to do is allow myself to be open to the idea that there are sometimes I may need help. And that's okay. There's pretty good people around who are glad to assist in any way possible. I just need to trust them enough to share. 

Trusting that I am doing all I can is a big thing too. I've come so far in recent years and gained confidence I never knew I lacked but there are some things I still struggle with. I sometimes doubt that I'm doing enough and I have trouble accepting that I'm doing a good enough job in all aspects of my life. There's always room to improve right? But what I've decided is that I'll be happy with the effort I have put in. Even striving to do this for the past couple months has given me the ability to see I'm doing pretty darn good. 

Last, trusting that I am being led and guided into what I'm suppose to be doing. Whether you believe in a divine power or not I'm sure you've experienced a time where life seemed to just flow naturally and you end up somewhere you never expected to be. This year this may be the biggest goal. I need to allow life to flow. And trust that everything will make sense eventually...even if it's not instant understanding. 

I feel like this year will be an interesting one. I can't wait to see what it will bring. Here's to 2016!