Tag: God

Goodbye 52! A Game-Changer of a Year That Almost Broke Me

It’s the start of my personal new year tomorrow.  I turn 53 on the 7th.   Yip, that is quite a daunting number, but I still maintain that my 50s will be my best decade yet! The “yet” part is very important in that sentence.  I believe that each decade thereafter will be even better than my 50s.  This really helps me look past the number and just be grateful and proud that I have reached it. 🙂  

52 has been the year that nearly broke me, but by God’s Grace, I am still standing and excited about 53.  That’s because it wasn’t all bad. 

Here are my top 5 highlights of 52:

  1. My son was made a school prefect.  It was a great example of how he set himself a goal and did what he needed to do to achieve it.
  2. My son received a subject award for his favourite subject for the second year in a row.
  3. I pushed through my fear and appeared on morning TV twice to do a product promotion.
  4. I learned to ask God different questions to understand what I needed to change to stop certain things from happening in my life, and I did get some answers.  They were definitely not revealed in the way I anticipated.  In all honesty, I also didn’t know how He would answer, but the way He did just wasn’t what I was expecting. 😅
  5. My team at work did me proud with the way they showed up this year.  We had a tough year, but they brought their A-game every day!  I am so proud of them. 

Oh, and a bonus one- I found a new mystery and suspense thriller author.  Her name is Stacy Green, and I am currently reading her Nikki Hunt series. You know you are enjoying a book when you are late to work because you lost track of time while reading. 😂

The lower lights…sigh. 

While I will only mention two, the reality is that these experiences ran back-to-back and spanned over a six month period. 

  1. Going through the process of reapplying for your job.  The stress was worse than I imagined.  I thought I would be ok but nothing quite prepares you for it.
  2. Getting in my own way time and time again. Then God showed me that this is what I had to stop doing.  Sadly, I had to witness someone else doing it to understand my own actions.  It was painful to watch, but now I am aware of how I create my own pain.
  3. There was a third experience. I won’t talk about it except to say that it reinforced my belief… No weapon formed against me shall prosper. God has got my back all the time. 

At the end of it, I am so grateful to have made it thus far.  I am thankful that my son and I had a roof over our heads, food on our table, clothes on our backs, a reliable car to get us from A to B and love in our home.  I had friends, family, and colleagues to support me through it all. Most importantly, I had God going before me every day. 

Photo by Anna Bratiychuk on Unsplash

So cheers to 52. 🥂 Thank you for the lessons and love.  Welcome 53!  Show me what you got! 💃🏽

“Parenting teenagers is an exercise in letting go, while holding on with all your heart.” – Michelle Cruz-Rosado

Day 21.  Letting go with faith was definitely today’s theme. Thank you, God, that my son and his friend had an amazing day today, and thank you for keeping them safe as well. 

Two Things I Am Grateful For

  1. I am grateful that my son could add another new experience to his bucket list this year.  He had spoken about wanting to attend a Sharks rugby match over the last few months.  He called it out as a goal for next year.  He must have wanted it quite badly because God decided to move the timeline up.  I am also really happy that he was able to experience it with one of his best friends.  Of course, letting him attend without me took a bit of faith on my part.  A lot of alcohol flows at these events, so my only prayer was that they didn’t encounter any drunk people who were also looking for trouble.  Thankfully, God heard that prayer, too. 
  2. My son has been blessed with many firsts this year.  His firsts included a cruise, a trip overseas watching his favourite soccer team play at their home stadium, and even seeing amazing exhibits at the museum in London.  He saw some of the exhibits in his textbooks and was thrilled to see them in real life. He used to enjoy visiting the Pietermaritzburg Museum as a pre-schooler, so I was thrilled to know that he hadn’t lost his love of museums.  I am grateful to everyone, and especially God, for making all of my son’s new experiences possible this year.  He has really been blessed. 
Image created on Canva

One Moment of Joy

Just having my son home again has been a real joy.  I have barely seen him today but it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that he is sleeping in his own bed tonight.  Tomorrow, he is off again, so once again, I have to loosen the reins and have faith that he will be ok and enjoy his time away.  When he was younger, I used to worry that he would enjoy his time away from me so much that he wouldn’t want to come back home.  How much more self-absorbed and insecure could I be!🫣 I know better now.  I know now that while he might not miss me when he goes away because he is enjoying the moment, he will always love me as much as he always has, and he will always be grateful to be home when he returns.  I guess I am also just preparing myself for the day he goes to university.  I only have two more years with him at home.  

Well, that’s it from me today.  Thanks for popping by.

Bye for now.

Love is the Truest Form of Grace in my Life

That line is Day 12’s centring thought in Deepak Chopra’s “Manifesting Grace through Gratitude” meditation programme. The programme is free and has been running throughout December. Each time I repeat that line, it brings me such peace.


I have been contemplating it, and it has made me think of how revitalising closed doors can be. I didn’t expect it to lead me to revisit closed doors, but it did. Perhaps it’s because I read about forgiveness in Marianne Williamson’s “A Return to Love” this morning. In it, she says that the Course says: To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past and those that were given to you. All the rest must be forgotten.” It makes sense if you remember that forgiveness is a quest to return to a state of inner peace. This passage has been rolling around in my subconscious the whole day, and then this evening, I came across Deepak’s line.


According to the Christian religion, Grace is the unmerited favour of God. God would not give us Grace if He hadn’t already seen past all our perceived wrongs. He only shows love and understanding. So, to know that I live surrounded by God’s love every second of every day, no matter what I do and how many mistakes I make in life, makes me feel whole and complete. What more can I possibly ask for. And if I have such complete love, then so does everyone else, so who I am, to hold grudges against people and cause myself unnecessary stress, anger and drama. Peace only comes through seeing past people’s mistakes.

Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com


OK, Michelle, what does this have to do with closed doors? Well, while contemplating the thought, I realised that I would be in the space that I am today, mentally and spiritually, if some doors had not been closed to me. When some doors closed, I initially focused on the closed door. It hurt. As time went on, I focused on my spiritual growth. I realised that God was giving me space to learn to love myself, to see myself as the whole and fantastic human being that I am, and to find peace and thrive. Now that I understand who I am, it is much easier to let go of the anger and disappointment I might feel towards someone who caused a door to close on me, closed the door themselves, or I had to close it too, and thank them instead. This goes for me as well. If God can love me as I am, with all my faults, who am I to judge myself. Besides, how would I have learned anything if I hadn’t made any mistakes?


So here I am…filled with and surrounded by love and Grace, which gives me a sense of peace. What has your experience of grace and forgiveness being?

Hope that made sense to you. Thanks for popping by. Be blessed.