Beyond

With a new year and a new decade beginning, there is a world of possibilities. A chance to start new, to make a difference, to begin again.

A New Years tradition in my family is filling out our “Hopes, Dreams and Goals” sheets for the new year. For a few years, I’ve had one word for the year, and I’ll write it at the top of my sheet, and all my “hopes, dreams and goals” are centered on the concept of the word I chose.

Similar to past years, I didn’t come up with my word for the year as soon as the new year hit. It takes me a few days of thinking, praying and digging into what I hope for, and what I sense God leading me in. So for this year, my word is “Beyond.”

One thing I’ve realized every year in looking back to my “Hopes, Dreams and Goals” of previous years is the year didn’t always go according to what I wrote down. There have been some years when I did accomplish a lot of what I wrote down, but some years (like 2019) when most of what I wrote down never became reality.

At the beginning of January 2019, I was gearing up to move to Franklin, TN. I was so focused on moving there to pursue songwriting, which I thought God was leading me in.

Little did I know, God had very different plans for me being there. I was only there for five months, and those five months included close no progress in terms of becoming a recorded artists, but instead was a season of me discovering my unique “genius,” and gaining astronomically valuable experience working at a restaurant.