Who would have believed such incredible words of wisdom would come from a cartoon Mandrill who goes by the name, Rafiki? I may be showing my age, but this is one of my favorite quotes from The Lion King. Take one minute and watch the clip below.
Can you imagine if all of us took Rafiki’s sage words of knowledge and enlightenment and applied them to our lives? How different could 2022 be? I’m going to do my best to stop living in fear of my past. Will I once again end up in the hospital with pancreatitis? Will I get COVID again? What about the rest of my family? I find focusing on the past, with all its hurts and disappointments and sadness and pain sucks the life from me. I have a choice. Become bitter or better. It’s my choice. The more I seek to learn from my past, instead of running from it, the better my life becomes.
While I find Rafiki to be the smartest Mandril I have ever met, I have to say I disagree with his one statement, “It doesn’t matter.” It does matter. Our pain, sorrow, disappointments, broken relationships, unfulfilled hopes, and dreams do matter. They are a very real part of your story and we should never pretend they didn’t happen or that they didn’t really hurt The real question is what do you do with all the “bad stuff?”
I am going to do two things this year.
- I’m going to make a list of the things in 2021 that were challenging and slowly ask myself, what did I learn from these experiences? I’m not going to deny they happened, but I do want to learn from them.
- I am then going to seek ways to help other people who may be experiencing something similar to me, applying what I learned from #1.
Who would like to join me? I am thankful for all of you and am praying for God’s blessing on you and your family in 2022.