Part 9 - Learning to Pay Attention
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." - Psalm 32:8
"The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps." - Proverbs 14:15
"But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." - John 14:26
Insight
As you step into the year ahead, one of the most valuable skills you can cultivate is the ability to reflect well—not just at the end of the year when you're looking back, but throughout the year as you're living it. Reflection is the practice of paying attention to what's happening in your life, noticing patterns, discerning God's movement, and allowing those observations to inform your next steps.
Most of us live our lives at such a pace that we move from one experience to the next without pausing to ask the deeper questions: What is God showing me through this? How am I changing? What patterns am I noticing? Where is love being received and expressed? What lessons is He trying to teach me that I might be missing in the rush of daily life?
The year ahead will be full of moments—some significant, most seemingly ordinary—that contain treasures of wisdom and insight if you're paying attention. Conversations that reveal something about your heart. Challenges that expose areas where you still need to grow. Joys that remind you of God's goodness. Disappointments that deepen your capacity for compassion. Each of these experiences is a teacher if you're willing to be a student.
Regular reflection keeps you from simply repeating patterns that don't serve you well. It helps you recognize when you're slipping into old habits of anxiety, control, or self-protection. It alerts you to seasons when you're drifting away from the things that matter most. It celebrates progress that might otherwise go unnoticed and identifies areas where course correction might be needed.
But reflection isn't meant to be a form of spiritual performance review or self-condemnation. It's meant to be a loving examination done in partnership with the Holy Spirit, who promises to guide you into all truth. He's not interested in beating you up for your failures; He's interested in helping you learn and grow and become more of who He created you to be.
Effective reflection requires both honesty and grace. Honesty means being willing to see clearly—acknowledging where you've grown and where you've stumbled, recognizing patterns that serve you and patterns that don't. Grace means holding all of this with the same compassion that God holds it with, knowing that growth is a process and setbacks are part of the journey.
Consider building small practices of reflection into your year ahead. Maybe it's a weekly walk where you process the week with God. Maybe it's a monthly journal session where you ask Him to show you what He's been teaching you. Maybe it's regular conversations with a trusted friend or mentor who helps you notice things you might miss on your own.
The goal isn't to figure everything out or to reach perfect conclusions about every experience. Sometimes the most honest thing you can say is, "I don't understand this yet, but I trust that God was present and working even when I couldn't see it." The goal is simply to stay awake, to pay attention, to remain teachable throughout the year ahead.
Journaling Questions
What practices of regular reflection might help you stay aware of God's movement and your own growth throughout the year ahead?
How can you cultivate the balance of honesty and grace needed for healthy self-examination and spiritual growth?
What patterns from this past year do you want to pay attention to and potentially adjust as you move forward?
Who in your life helps you see yourself and your circumstances more clearly, and how can you invest in those relationships?
What would change about your year ahead if you approached each month as an opportunity to learn something new about yourself and about God?