Phew! What a year
What a journey!
It wasn’t easy
But I had fun
It didn’t go as planned
But I did all I could
I didn’t achieve all
But I made it through
It was quite the year
But I’m not weighing the tears
I’m not checking the losses
I am counting my blessings
Wrapping the year up in praise.

Few more days to go and 2018 enters the annals of history. How has it been so far? Different strokes for different folks they say. We may not have had a choice however it came in January, but we can choose how we send off, what’s left of the year. Every one of us gathered a reason or two for tears. We all encountered our losses and disappointments; things that didn’t come or go as expected. Good times were had if truth must be told. And there were days we really have no way of describing how it transpired. All of that is in the past. Today is all we have, to choose how to end this passing year, to choose how to usher in the coming year.

Maybe I think I’m still where I was at this time last year. Maybe not. Maybe a lot changed. Maybe not. Yet these are not the issues. For me, on this same planet where I saw many obituaries in the past 12 months, I am choosing to wrap up 2018 in praise. I am alive today, that gives me hope to look forward to 2019 and I am choosing while I can, to welcome it in praise.

I may not have been able to choose a lot of things in the past. I may not be able to choose some in future but today, right now, I am choosing praise as my style. I am praising my way out of 2018 and praising into 2019. Yes, I am making praise my lifestyle today and come 2019, I want praise to continue to be my style. This is the choice I can make, this is one thing I can control and therefore this is my choice, my stand, my style: praise.

What about you? What is your choice? Are you going to focus on losses you can’t recover? On situations you can’t change? On changes you can’t control? My prayer for you as I also pray for myself is that we roll off 2018 and roll into 2019 in sincere praise that flows from hearts that are grateful to the One who loved, who loves and who forever will love us no less; for life, for all we have, for all that worked and for all that we hope will come to pass. May praise be our preferred lifestyle in the coming year.

Glory!