Thoughts: Hannah's Blog

In due course of time, I have developed the habit of trying to summarize my life events in a year and what I look forward to in the coming year – 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011. As this year is drawing to a close, I sought to do the same. I look back on the things that I was looking forward to this year. On the personal front: my mom has shifted to her new house, sooner than expected and it was a major change as we moved out of the quarters, which was in a remote area into an apartment, quite close to the bus stand. By God’s grace, we were able to buy a few household items as well. Work-wise: as expected, I moved onto a different business and a different project, different building and different cubicle. Surprisingly, I also got a new manager, new project manager, new one-over-one manager and a new section manager! New beginnings indeed!

This year, with my brother in law’s help, I was able to get a domain name – http://hannahsblog.in and created a new blog in WordPress, shifted all the posts from my old blog (blogspot) onto the new one. I hope I continue to write regularly. Bought a lot of books, and finished reading a few. Also bought a lot of craft materials, tried my hand at learning calligraphy, made some book marks, tried fabric painting, didn’t come out well, same is the case with watercolors as well.

Don’t want to bore you with the details of what I did in office this year – I have to write that officially anyway, based on which my performance will be rated by my manager, which in turn will be used to decide the hike for next year. The cycle starts like this: In January, we write our goals for the year, what kind of projects we will be working on, what we are trying to achieve. Then in mid-year, we write an update on what we have done to achieve the goals. We have a discussion with our manager on the progress. Then finally in December we visit those goals again and write what we have done past mid-year to fulfill those goals. We rate ourselves on how we have performed, then our manager also rates us on our performance which will be revealed to us by March and by April, we get to know how much hike we have been given.

Should our lives follow a similar cycle? Should we set some personal goals with timeline and assess how much progress we have made to achieve that goal? I know there are people who do that diligently. Who is our manager who can review our performance and suggest improvements by pointing out our weaker areas and give us training so that we can fare better?  As a follower of Christ, my ultimate goal is to become more like Jesus, to be conformed to His image. And the Holy Spirit is my Guide, my Counselor who will lead me in all truth. He is the gentle voice that nudges me, reminds me of God’s words and His promises and helps me assess whether a behavior or thought or plan of action would be pleasing in His sight or not.

As this year comes to a close, I hope I set some time aside to spend on reviewing my days with my Lord to know where all I have missed and strive to do better next year with His help.

But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me…
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.     – Psalm 19:12-14.