Rockwall, TX (January 1, 2024) – What is there left to tell you that another wise journalist hasn’t already said about entering into the New Year? Set SMART goals? Start with the end in mind? Go easy on yourself. Forward motion is the key, not your final destination? Yes, you have read all these and more, time and time again, and I made a promise years ago that as a writer I would do my darndest to only bring you original content. (NO AI in this column – ever.) I try very hard to say what you have not already heard or read, even if the knowledge was bestowed upon me somehow along my life’s journey.
So here are my thoughts for the coming year: Whatever you decide you need to do to make this the very best year you need it to be, please do it with love. Love for yourself. Love for others. Love for life. Love for community.
This last year has been the hardest of my life. It was hard in our marriage, hard in my work and hard in the world around me. So much disappointment, so much pain, so much loss, so many dishonest and dubious people. And evidently, I am not alone. I have heard from dozens upon dozens of people that this last year felt as if, in some ways, it’s been cursed. It has been a strange thing to endure- not all of it was bad but the parts that were rotten were almost unbearable or as some have said, unimaginable. Often, these were not afflictions we brought upon ourselves but of the choices of others. So we stood, or crumbled, into spaces in which we did not create and yet we could not find our way out of. It has been a difficult season and many of us are clinging to the promise of a fresh start.
Nevertheless, as my wise friend always tells me: we can do hard things. And even better, we can do hard things with love; In my professional assessment, that is what we need more of. We do not need more loyalty, that is fleeting and shifts with the sands. We do not need more honesty, our social media world has proved that to be full of brutality and pain. Our coffers need not be filled with time or money or success – those are all fraught with their own flip sides. Yes, those are good things and if used correctly, they can be Godly things but none of it matters if we don’t have them or do them in love. So instead, love through your loyalty, love through your honesty, love through your commitments to prosper, that is what brings peace and growth.
No matter if you choose to lose the weight, or go after the increase in sales, or connect more to your family – do it all with and from love in your head, heart and soul. Think of others first. Analyze how the power in your choices may affect others and how you lose your power in the consequences that follow. Choose to do everything in love and those consequences quickly shift into blessings. Our world has become a dark place in too many ways. We are seeing parts of humanity we never thought we’d face. It’s time to reverse the tides and bring things back to the greatest of these…love.
Well would you look at that?! Seems I did not give you any original content at all. I guess my first goal of the New Year was a failure. Good thing I lost this one out to The One who said it first: If I have the gift of truth telling and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. (1 Cor. 13)
Go in Peace and Love…
& May you discover the very best of your years are ahead of you, starting this year.
Happy New Year!
Guest column by Erin Kincaid, Founder and Clinical Director of Rockwall Heath Counseling. She holds a host of degrees in Psychology, Christian Counseling, Anthropology and is working toward her PhD in Clinical Counseling.
Erin lives in Rockwall with her husband and son. Look for more of her guest columns here.
Life Lessons by Erin Kincaid: Whatever you decide to do, do it with love. added by Melanie M on
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