Looking Back and Looking Forward

Join me for this series where we will reflect on the past year, so we learn how to shine in the year to come.

I learned a new word the other day: Earthshine. Earthshine is when sunlight reflects off the earth onto the moon and makes it shine. How cool is that! I never knew such a phenomenon existed.

It made me think. What do I reflect? And does what I display make the world around me shine?

So, over the next few weeks we are going to look back and look forward. We will reflect on the past year, so we can learn how to shine in the year to come.

Each blog post will contain questions to help you think about the past year and decide where you can do better in the New Year.  And to help you pray your way through this, I’ve created a guide with scripture-inspired Looking Back and Looking Forward prayer prompts and space to record your reflections.

 

Posts in the #LookingBackLookingForward series

Three Steps To Gain Confidence For The New Year

If it snows in London, it’s like a sprinkling of wet confectioner’s sugar.

Frozen precipitation is inevitable during the winter season, yet Londoners always seem completely unprepared.

When I lived in the city, sidewalks became skating rinks as I walked to and from work in far from …

Rethinking A Throwaway Attitude

As I threw my collection of used plastic bags onto the back seat of my car, with the intention to drop them off at the recycling center of my local supermarket, I vowed to stop using plastic bags altogether.

Of course, the dilemma is how to make purchases in a shop without having it bagged and …

The Light That Changes Everything

Christmas lights in London are never very stunning, yet in January Londoners and the city’s visitors are going to be dazzled.

Huge areas of the city will be transformed with lighted art displays.

An event called 

How To Successfully Beat The Giants In Your Life

We had a wild turkey in our yard one winter. I spotted it through the window from the kitchen. “How the heck did it get inside our fenced yard?” I asked myself.

It strutted menacingly—head jerking back and forth—towards the chicken coop. “It’s after their food,” I thought, …

How To Overcome Your Challenges

I’d call myself a pretty good skier, although one particular afternoon on the slopes I faced a challenge beyond my ability, or so I thought.

Skiing with my family, we took a chairlift higher up the mountain where only single and double black diamond runs—for experts only—could be accessed. …

How To Be Made Perfect

God doesn’t reject you for being defective. God can use you for his perfect purpose regardless of your imperfections.

On a visit to the Simon Pearce mill in Vermont, I saw glassblowers at work.

I watched as one glassblower carefully extracted a glowing orange glob of molten glass from a searing furnace using a long metal rod, the blowpipe.

The glassblower sat down and gently rolled the rod backwards and …