As the year comes to a close, a lot of people start creating their list of new year goals (download our free worksheet- Reflecting + Goals 2017). But instead of making ONLY your new year goals, consider making a list of all the things you appreciated this year no matter how many bad things happened to you in 2016.

Focusing on this will help you realize how many blessings you’ve had and that in the midst of not such good times, very good things DO happen. We must start appreciating what we’ve got before we start expecting more blessings.

This year, I got to travel back to Nicaragua, the country I was born in. It was a very expensive trip for my family because it was several of us. However, my husband insisted on going because I’d always say we’d go and the total trip expenses always seemed so high.

I’d always say we’d go next year and I have many excuses. Excuses like….next year because our savings would be larger and I’d feel better knowing we’d have more than enough if something...

Surviving a lifetime of being bullied!

As a child, I was bullied, and it was a long process for me to recover. I was teased, made fun of and told that I would never be anything. This was by my family from birth throughout my early adult years. I also endured years of being jumped on and beat-up by my cousin for no reason.

This resulted in me being shy and my self-esteem was very low. I was also teased in school because I was skinny, and my teeth were crooked. As a result, I walked with my head down and I never smiled. There were so many days that I would come home and just cry.

I was doing poorly in school because I was suffering from depression. I vividly remember one day I was in health class and a classmate told me that I was skinny enough to hula hoop in a fruit-loop. I was called grandma and told me that I was homely! which hurt a lot. That was just a tiny bit of the things that were said to me.

Unfortunately, I was struggling with being bullied. I stayed faithful and knew tha...