Habits of Hope: Cultivating a Deeper Life with God

17.What We Learned in 2024: Insights, Wins, and Challenges

• Ginger Harrington • Season 1 • Episode 17

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Feeling rushed to jump into 2025? Pause with us. In this powerful episode, we’re reflecting on the lessons of 2024—discovering how reflection, faith, and small habits anchor us in God’s goodness and prepare us for a hopeful year ahead.

Description:
In this special end-of-year episode, Ginger and Larissa dive deep into the transformative power of reflection. Together, they explore how making space to pause, notice God’s faithfulness, and celebrate growth can set the stage for a life of hope and trust in His goodness. Drawing from scripture, personal experiences, and heartfelt lessons, they unpack the wisdom God has revealed throughout 2024.

From navigating hard seasons to learning the importance of waiting with God, this episode is packed with insights to help you enter 2025 with clarity, gratitude, and renewed faith. Rooted in John 14:26, we are reminded of the Holy Spirit’s role as our Advocate, guiding us and bringing to mind the lessons we need most. Whether you’re celebrating breakthroughs or processing struggles, this conversation will equip and inspire you to move forward in hope.

Today's Habit of Hope: Make reflection a priority to uncover lessons, see God’s faithfulness, and step into the future with clarity and hope.

Read the blog version here. 

Takeaways:

  1. Reflection Transforms Perspective
    • Reflection allows us to notice God’s faithfulness, celebrate small victories, and realign our hearts with His purpose.
  2. John 14:26: The Holy Spirit as Our Advocate
    • The Holy Spirit teaches us through life’s lessons, reminds us of God’s truth, and helps us recognize His work in our story.
  3. A Hard Year Can End Well
    • Even if your year started with struggles, God’s redemption can bring healing and hope to end on a positive note.
  4. Waiting with God Brings Peace
    • Shift your mindset from waiting for something to happen to waiting with God in His presence.
  5. Celebrate Growth and Progress
    • Growth doesn’t mean perfection. Every small step forward is evidence of God’s work in your life.
  6. Overcome Fal

Habits of Hope Podcast is for informational and inspirational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional advice—spiritual, medical, legal, or otherwise.

Ginger Harrington (00:04.558)
Welcome to Habits of Hope, where we explore how daily rhythms can anchor us in God's faithfulness and transform our lives one small habit at a time. At the end of 2024, we're taking a few moments to pause, reflect, and ask ourselves, what have we learned this year? In a world that often feels like it's moving too fast, reflection is a powerful habit that helps us recognize God's work in our

lives, celebrate growth and refocus on what truly matters. In this special episode, Larissa and I will uncover how making remembrance and reflection a regular rhythm can help you trust God's goodness, navigate life with a hopeful heart and step confidently into the future. I'm your host, Ginger Harrington, and Larissa is going to lead our conversation. Whether you've had a year of breakthroughs,

a season of struggle, or a little of both. This conversation will equip and encourage you to look back with gratitude and forward with faith. Larissa, welcome, my friend. Hey Ginger, so fun to be here with you and wrapping up this full year and a lot of it we've spent podcasting together. I know. And this is such a great topic. You know, I love it, of course. And I think I say that a lot.

but this one is a really good one. So I'm excited. I hope everyone's excited with us. This is one of the practices that I really love to do at the end of the year. And so I'm really excited what you're gonna share with us. Today's habit of hope is short and sweet. Take time to look back and notice what you've learned this year. So Larissa, let's talk about this a little bit. All right, well.

Today's habit of hope is inspired by a habit I have been cultivating for many years now. So here's just a short explanation about how I do it. I start by creating a list without overthinking it, at least the first time around, of things I remember that I have learned over this past year. You can also start this list early and keep adding to it throughout the year. Whatever works for you is what's gonna work best. You don't have to wait until the end of the year. I give myself

Ginger Harrington (02:27.512)
plenty of time. don't start this January 15th. I start at the end of December and then do a little bit of it in the beginning of January to give myself time and also for the Lord, right, to speak to me as well because there's a lot of lessons I did not remember at the beginning of my list. So I just keep adding to it. And usually I start with just a one word or a brief sentence to begin with. And then I go back later once I feel like the list is done.

and I add some explanation to remind myself the goal is focusing on what I've learned. This is an opportunity to write what the Lord puts on your heart. So I create this list and I do it before I go back and look at the previous ones because I eventually go back and look at the previous lists because I'm looking for themes. And of course, right now, none of us are surprised. One of the themes is grief. One of the themes is always gratitude. But sometimes you may be surprised.

by some of the themes and it might be an opportunity to learn, to grow. Ginger, will you share that one main verse that we will reference? And I know that there may be another verse or two that you'll want to share later on. Sure thing. The verse that we picked for this particular topic is John 14, 26. 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. And I love this verse for this topic because what we want to do when we're reflecting over the year is we want the Holy Spirit to highlight, to show us what those things are that He wants us to learn and He wants us to remember, because those are the ones that are most worthy of remembering, right? Yeah.

I love the fact that we can trust the Holy Spirit to teach us. Now in this particular scripture, Jesus is speaking specifically about the Holy Spirit teaching us the Word and reminding us of the words of Christ. Jesus speaks into our lives personally, not just through scripture. And so being able to recognize things that God is teaching us and being able to hold on to those

Ginger Harrington (04:51.67)
I don't want to forget the things that the Lord is teaching me. And particularly the ones that are hard lessons, I don't want to have to relearn those. Yeah, I'm with you, girl. Amen, amen. So that's our verse today. All right, so let's get started. I picked some of the ones that I thought were real highlights of the year or lessons that maybe y'all would resonate with or find helpful. One of the first things I wrote down is,

A year that starts off really hard doesn't have to end that way. I learned a lot in the first six days of this new year of 2024, and they were brutal lessons for sure, and certainly not how I would have liked to have started out the new year. However, I learned a lot and I am better for it, and now I'm ending my year so differently from the way it began.

I am mentally stronger for one. That's one example that I can share. So I loved that reminder that though the year started off hard and when people are listening to this, we don't know exactly when they're listening. Your year could have started off really hard and we want you to know that it doesn't have to end that way. So that's a real quick, simple one that I wanted to share and thoughts on that Ginger, have you had that experience before? Yes, and I'm so glad that you clarified that because I hadn't thought about my year that way.

But it's true. I started the year in kind of a down place. I had been struggling with some mild depression at the end of the year and it kind of carried into the beginning of the year. And yet at the same time I also had this sense of hope and excitement about new things God was going to do in the year. So I think that for me it just kind of gave me a really reflective and prayerful meditative stance at the beginning of the year.

And it's really been a joy filled year. Praise the Lord for that. Yes, I love that. That reminds me when you say that we can go slow in the new year. you're listening to, especially if you're listening to this, maybe a little bit later in January, it's okay that we're not all jumping off the starting block like massive racers. It is okay. If you are lingering a little longer in January, you're in great company because that's what I'm doing. This is part of what this

Ginger Harrington (07:15.972)
has taught me and it's okay, we can linger and not start off quick and still the year can end well. So I love that. So some of the other ones I'm gonna share next were specific ones that I learned from therapy. But first I just wanna say this, therapy works. And I'm not talking to those who believe they don't need therapy, I understand or maybe you're not in a place of wanting therapy. What I wanna do is really encourage those of you who want to see a therapist,

and can't or won't for various reasons. There are a lot of great Christian therapists out there who can help you navigate this life and bring breakthrough if you want. Now you don't have to, it's not the only way and the Lord has brought breakthrough when I've been by myself. this is not all of my things I've learned this year did not all come out of therapy specifically, but I just want to encourage you if you are looking to seek a therapist, these are some of the things I've learned this year that nobody else

had mentioned to me before. And so the Lord is using my therapist. So I just wanted to share that. One of them is wait with God. And this is something I kind of learned just recently. This is a perspective shift that has really helped me just in these last few weeks of the year. Wait in His presence versus waiting for Him to do something for me. This is what I'm talking about. This perspective changes my thoughts.

and my actions in the waiting, right? And I can't wait to hear what you have to say, Ginger. I wait more calmly and with great expectation because of this shift of waiting in His presence versus waiting on Him for something. So any thoughts about waiting on the Lord, Ginger? I love this one. Wow. Such a great point, sis. And what you're talking about is hope.

Right. got goosebumps when you said that. Yes. When we are learning to wait with the Lord, wait in the Lord, rather than waiting for Him to do something, we receive so much more in the process because God is always working and the things that we're waiting for and sometimes these things are so much more about process than end result and getting the thing. Right.

Ginger Harrington (09:38.511)
I think of Psalm 37 that talks about wait patiently for the Lord. And I know that in some of my waiting seasons, God has done so much in the intimacy and depth of my relationship with Him. And honestly, I wouldn't trade that. I wouldn't trade that. The relationship part with God is so much more important than most of the things that I was waiting on.

And you know what, here's another thing. When we have a perspective of, I'm waiting for the Lord to do this, I'm waiting for the Lord to break through, I'm waiting to get the answer to my prayer, it's really easy to fall into a transactional kind of mindset with the Lord.

I don't know, I just, don't want to do that. I know that in my flesh and in my limited human capacity that there's been times where I've been more focused on him doing something for me than appreciating and worshiping him for who he is and appreciating his presence. But my heart is to have that depth of relationship. And so that's a perfect one, particularly for this podcast, habits of hope and a deeper life with God. You get both of those.

Amen. And I didn't try, y'all. I did not try to make this work for the podcast. So maybe this one will resonate with you as well, Ginger. Another one I've learned this year is understanding what it means to be a new creation in Christ by first-hand experience. We read about it in the Bible, but I had a moment where my therapist actually said that I'm no longer the old me.

I can't even remember what I was talking about. I responded or I shared something with her and she's like, that was your old self. And now you're operating in this new you. And I just love that. And it made me also think about other verses that use this verbiage. So we know the verse about being a new creation in Christ. And then this other verse that I was thinking about as I was doing this exercise was where it talks about throwing on Hebrews.

Ginger Harrington (11:49.169)
12.1 and I'll read it real quick. This is out of the Living Bible and I thought this was really good and this is not necessarily referencing that but it made me think of this and so maybe this will help someone else. So this is out of the Living Bible. Since we have such a huge crowd of men of faith watching us from this grandstands, let us strip off anything that slows us down or holds us back and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up.

and let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us. And I love that part of let us strip off anything that slows us down and old patterns can do that and operating in the old self. When I'm a new creation, it was such a moment of like clarity and freedom. And I know I could go on and on, but I'm real curious to hear from you, your thoughts on that.

Well, you know, is it first Corinthians 517? You're a new creation. the old things have passed away. New things have come. This practice of reflecting and capturing noticing the things that God is teaching us each year, the progress that we've made, the wins and the things to celebrate. That's part of the new things that God is

working into our life, into our faith, into our character, into our mental, emotional, and spiritual health, wellness, and identity in Christ. It's a lifelong process, so we're always going to be learning something. We're always going to be in that process of the old patterns and the old mindsets and habits passing away. Just the verbiage there, we work very hard to get out of bad habit patterns or old habit patterns, and it does take work.

Yeah, that verse is talking about how it passes away and new things come. There is something intuitive about our relationship with God and the work of the Holy Spirit teaching us and reminding us again and again over time that brings those new things. As we embrace the new things and begin to think more and more out of our new self in Christ, our identity in Christ, some of those old things naturally

Ginger Harrington (14:08.433)
pass away, we forget about them, we stop doing them. So there's this tension, so to speak. Sometimes it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort and a lot of practice to let go of something. And then sometimes the Lord works and you look back and you go, wow, I don't do that anymore. Or I don't do that very often. Or that wasn't my knee jerk response this time. so it's just a testimony to the power of our advocate, our Holy Spirit.

who's working in our lives all the time. Yeah. Oh, I love, love, love that. And it was second Corinthians five 17. Okay. So just want to clarify for people. So they're not searching for it. So, um, and I apologize for not having that on the ready. I just was so excited about the other part of it. I know. Well, you know, one of the things I'm just going to pop in here. Yeah. I've re embraced scripture memory in my life this year because

For years and years, I memorized two verses a week. Then in the busyness of life and my kids being older, I just got out of that pattern, that habit. And one of the things that the Lord impressed upon me this year is to really give that my time and attention. Being able to pull that verse up, even though I didn't have the first or second Corinthians right, that is the benefit of responding to those things that the Lord is giving us is I've

I did review that verse earlier this year. The content of it was there, even if I got a little confused on first and second. you know, most of the time that's okay. We should go back and look it up. Just being able to have the benefit of being able to just talk about that ad lib on the podcast. I wouldn't be able to do that if I had not been responding to that lesson that the Lord was teaching me and at least trying to get back to that pattern of Scripture memory.

I love that. That is so, good. So this next one is very similar. And again, another thing that I learned in therapy is several false beliefs that I'm overcoming. A lot has happened in the last couple of months in this overcoming and learning process. I'm learning what those false beliefs are, understanding better what a belief is, and then overcoming. So I'm going to share one example. The belief that something is only and ever hard to do.

Ginger Harrington (16:30.118)
The truth is, yes, some things are hard and have been hard specifically for me. And what is also true is that it doesn't always have to be hard or won't always be hard. I'm learning to reframe my thinking. And I'll probably put this on my 2025 list next year at the end of the year as I haven't had a lot of time to explore this yet.

But I love it. And one of the other things I had learned in some cases, while we're working on reframing our brain, we can actually do physical things that help us with overcoming a certain challenge. And so it made me think of John Acuff's quote, remove friction between you and your goals in the spiritual or the mental way of doing that is reframing my thinking, taking that negative or old tape.

of saying, it's too hard, I can't do hard things, and reframing that. So I love that, but I did not get to really explore this, because this was just like in the last week. But any thoughts on that, Ginger, any experience with that? Well, I love the fact that you're focusing in on beliefs. We have all kinds of beliefs, and part of that process of growing into the fullness of our new creation, self in Christ, our full identity in Christ.

is being able to recognize those beliefs that are not in alignment with God's Word and God's character and who we are in Christ. And one of the things that you're reminding me of is one of the ways that we can begin to identify what some of those false beliefs or misperceptions are in our lives. If we listen to ourselves, we tend to say them again and again and again. Sometimes someone else has to point that out.

Right? But you know, when you're saying it's too hard or I can't or it never works out for me or God never, you know, those things that roll off our tongue in the moment. And if we learn, listen, sometimes we can identify some of those things that we don't necessarily think about them as beliefs. That's the key. That's the thing I told my therapist. I'm like, sometimes I just don't know that it's a belief that we kind of unpacked that. So

Ginger Harrington (18:55.441)
Yeah, it's a great revelation. I like it. I know me too. So here we go. Here's a, here's another one. God will never cease to show up and bless me big when I least expect it. So within a day or two of that very hard beginning of 2024, God blessed me in a way that I knew was only Him. And I won't go into those details, but it was so sweet and so immediate.

And I think we've talked about this on the podcast, we don't always get to see redemption immediately or a solution or God in the details. But this one time, and it's not the only time, but it was right in the beginning of the year after the hard things where I just was like, wow, that's the Lord and only Him. And thank you, God, for doing that. I love that I wrote that down and then remembered it. So anything

like that for you Ginger that God just showed up big maybe where you least expected it or maybe even it doesn't have to be big I mean I thought it was a big deal for me but any any thoughts on that one? Well what comes to mind is not necessarily an experience from my own life on that one but what you're talking about is being a noticer and you've mentioned this before being a noticer

of what God's doing and of what he's teaching us. And I think that that is such a key practice. It's it's mindfulness. It is paying attention to our life, paying attention to what God's doing in and around us. And you want to talk about a powerful habit of hope that really coincides with this episode topic so you can capture what God's been teaching you. And hopefully

continue to walk forward in it. You know, back to our verse today, John 1426, this is one of the things that the spirit does. He's so good at it he's so sweet to us, right? I love that. All right, so here's another one. I will stand up for myself and I will survive the fallout. And so I'll kind of unpack this a little bit. I'm actually kind of smiling and laughing as I reread this statement almost a whole year later. This is so true.

Ginger Harrington (21:20.627)
I have survived so much just in this year. And these were concepts that I'm going to share. I'm being very transparent here. I'm not throwing anyone else under the bus, but being very transparent about my challenges. But I have always struggled with people pleasing, accommodating others at my expense and avoidance. And specifically, I try to avoid uncomfortable people and situations. And I, and I know a lot of people do. Most of us don't, don't sign up for, yay.

I love conflict. want to call everybody out on their stuff or whatever. Most of us don't like that. But this is one of my trauma responses that I'm learning. And as a child, it served me well. It was a protection mechanism. But what I'm learning now is as an adult, it is not helping me. And so since it doesn't serve me well, I need to unlearn these patterns.

And so that was a good one to remember that I can stand up for myself. I can stop people pleasing and I will survive. And unfortunately, you know, not everybody responds great to that because why would they like people don't want to be called out or they don't want to know that they've hurt you or whatever the thing is. But I can be okay when others are not okay.

And so that was a big one for me. So any thoughts on that? I know you raised your hand with the people pleasing or whatnot or not wanting to be a part of conflict. So any thoughts you want to share on that? I think we're going to have to at some point come doing some podcasts, episodes on those. All of those are really hard for me. OK. And I have to really work at

at it and I won't say that I'm good at it at all. It's still an area of growth in my life. yeah, me too, girl. So I'm going to cheer you on. Well done. That's a tough one. That's tough one. Our friends that are listening, if you are learning that too this year, you've been learning to set boundaries and to stand up for yourself when needed, to let go of people pleasing.

Ginger Harrington (23:30.768)
If you've been learning to wait in the Lord and some of these other things that we've talked about today, well done. I'm cheering you on too. I love that. Yes. Ginger, you know, you know me. I love a good celebration. That's right. And we have to do that for one another. Right. That's sweet of you to do that for me because you're, you're like reminding me, Hey, well done girl. And, and it's hard. And we talked about that at the beginning, some of this stuff's fun and some of it is not fun, but it's, it's still lessons.

learned. okay, so here's one that's hard, but not as emotionally hard and hopefully it'll be a helpful one. But one of the things I heard this year is just three words in one sentence, but it's kind of a motto and it's use the difficulty. I got this from an actor, Michael Cain. He's well known, but also was a stage actor at some point who learned this concept

in motion, literally. So he's on stage getting ready to say his lines and walk in a door and a chair ended up in front of the door that he's supposed to enter through. And the other actor on the other side is like, Hey, where are you? Like, you gotta you gotta come in. And he's like, but there's a chair there. And the guy's like, use the difficulty. And he's like, What do mean by that? And he says, Well, if it's a comedy, fall over it. If it's a drama, pick it up and smash it. Just use

the difficulty. so Cain talks about how anything bad happens in his life. says, we've got to use the difficulty. How can we work with this? What can we get out of it? And that was just something that I started again, another kind of like a reframing that the reality is some things really are hard. And yet we can use that and still overcome and the Lord can use that right to help us persevere.

I remind myself and kind of laugh. imagine him trying to trip over a chair on stage. But any thoughts on that? What comes to mind when I say that? there's so many difficult things that I have processed through and I can see how God has used it in my life. So I'm not going to go into a specific, but I get that one. I think it's helpful when we can remember when we're experiencing difficult things to be able to just hold that out to the Lord and say,

Ginger Harrington (25:53.62)
Lord, I'm willing to experience hard things and I trust you to bring something good through this to teach me, to grow me, to strengthen me. And I'm just going to trust you in the process. And for me, that's been a game changer because what it's done for someone who one of my old ways, the old things that are in the process of passing away is anxiety.

mentally rehashing and beaten myself up about something and those types of things. Learning that, God is using this and God's doing something good in the midst of the hard and the difficult. It just helps me calm down and navigate some of these things from more of a place of peace. I won't say that I'm always at peace.

Right and this kind of touches into one of the lessons that God's been teaching me this year. You want me throw that one out here? Are we done with this? Yeah Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, so my theme verse this year I don't always do a verse of the year or a word of the year But isaiah 26 3 the steadfast of mine that will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in thee He trusts in you this steadfast mind god has taught me so many lessons about a steadfast mind

and that the foundation of that is trusting in Him. And then the result of that is His perfect peace. And so oftentimes I want a shortcut to the perfect peace without having to do the work of trusting and the work of staying focused on what God's doing. So these kind of go hand in hand of being able to trust Him with the hard things, the difficult things, the things that don't seem like they're going right or the things that...

It seems like it'll never happen or whatever the thing. Yeah, maybe. But being able to stay single minded in a place of trust on the Lord and just keep coming back to that. And that perfect piece is shalom. it's the full alignment of body, soul, spirit, everything in life being in alignment with God's will, his character, his purpose. And it's the kind of peace that we're made for and that

Ginger Harrington (28:12.903)
this side of heaven we're always craving. We're always craving perfect peace. Being able to recognize it's not the end of the world to go through something hard and staying focused on trusting the Lord. As we've said in other podcasts, sometimes that's a moment by moment thing. know, like I'll spool up and then I'm like, I'm gonna take a deep breath. And I'll say that verse to myself again. Okay, this is time for a step that's mine. Lord, I'm trusting you.

and I'll trust you for the peace to come. Maybe I'm not experiencing the peace right in this moment, but the peace does come. That's one of my lessons this year. Yeah, and that's that waiting with and waiting in his presence. You've done that. So I love, love, love that. All right, you ready for another one? Yeah, what else you got? So these are good. Oh, well, thank you. I love this. This is why I love doing this every year. So I'm glad that we're getting to do a podcast on it.

Hope y'all are enjoying it as well. And if you are, y'all take a moment to stop and share out this episode because I think a lot of people rush into the new year and don't take time to reflect. So share this out and share with us how it's helping you and also what lessons have you learned? We would love to hear that. I know Ginger will remind us of that at the end as well, but just a little note there. So here's another one, love this one. Notice the glimpses of God's redemption.

in areas that may seem unimportant, but they still point to Him. And I have a specific example that I can share. And it goes a little bit along with that other one when you mentioned being a noticer of God. One example for me is the compliments I now get on my printing. And what I mean is my like hand printing, like pen to paper writing. I don't do cursive writing. I only print.

My printing was a source of contention for me for many years since kindergarten. You guys, I've been blessed to get lots of compliments on my writing. But when I was young, do y'all remember that awful brown paper in the first grade that had blue lines and you're writing with a pencil. And I would write so hard because I was so stressed that I would break through the paper or I'd have to erase so many times. And it was just this source of frustration from very young and God was so sweet.

Ginger Harrington (30:32.543)
to redeem that sore spot in these last six months, it really got me thinking that if that was important to the Lord, what else, right? What else is He doing in my life and in your life where He is redeeming something that maybe you haven't noticed? So do you have any thoughts on that? I love it. I sound like a broken record, but girlfriend, these are good.

good, good lessons. Those childhood experiences are so formative and they help shape our flesh patterns because we learn ways to cope with those hard things and those things that are uncomfortable or we don't understand or we misperceive as kids. And that's, that's, that's where some of those patterns of doing life apart from God start. And it's also where some of those false beliefs that we've talked about. And so how, what a beautiful picture of

of your father's love to take you back to something that was hard from kindergarten. And you have the coolest printing. for those of y'all that are listening, I have been talking to this chick about turning her print into a font for at least five years.

least and I'm working on it. Yeah, that's just the tech ramp. Yeah, it's just the tech tech ramp. Lord have mercy. That tech ramp. Yeah, I love that. And I just I just it's it's interesting. So what I want, I want to be transparent with y'all and hear hear this. We did not rehearse this. I created my list. Ginger created hers. I just asked the Lord, hey, which out of these because I have 19 written down so far. It's like a very wall podcast today.

right. But I thought I'd pick the ones that, you know, that the Lord wanted me to. And then I would prayed before we went live. Hey, Lord, you know, help me pick out the ones that might encourage others as well. So that's why we like to be transparent, right? This is we can laugh about some of these things. But like for me, for the longest time, this was a source of contention. And now I've got so much freedom, Ginger. And I like my writing now, but I could find myself not really embracing it and loving it.

Ginger Harrington (32:50.277)
if I had stayed focused on that source of pain. And it's sweet that the Lord, even as we're talking about it, is showing me how maybe that's where it was ingrained in me all that time ago. I can't do hard things. I'm always having to erase and rip paper and I can't do this. I wonder. I did not think about that before I wrote this down. I'm wondering if maybe that's, and that's a long time ago, y'all. I needed freedom in this area.

So what just happened here on this podcast is a great example of our advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom our Father has given us in Jesus' name, teaching us and reminding us and enabling us to have perceptions and insights and clarity that help us love Him more, trust Him more, and move forward in freedom and grace.

Amen. So another thing I'm learning is I am still struggling and growing at the same time. It's that and also not the either or. And here's my example. I still struggle with fear. It's different than before, but it's still fear. I feel like the Lord just brought that to mind in the last few months. I didn't realize that. I wouldn't say that I like over fear, not that I've never had.

a fearful moment, but I had thought I'd really dealt with that. And here's some examples is that I have fear of not handling hard situations. Can you all hear the theme? Or fear of not handling them well. And then also fear of being out of control, which is really no surprise for me because I am overcoming being a control freak. And then also fear of how people will respond.

to things I say or do and we covered this a little bit ago about being honest and sharing with people, hey, what you said hurt my feelings or hey, I'm uncomfortable with that or setting a boundary. And what I've discovered is, is that my issue is how they're gonna respond. It doesn't change the truth. It's still very real, but I don't bring it up because of fear of how they're gonna respond. And then that leads to being uncomfortable. So.

Ginger Harrington (35:09.361)
Any thoughts on that that you want to share? Well, just that process of what you're talking about is growth, right? Is your overcoming and yet not, not yet. And some of that's life. Life happens and God gives us the opportunity to keep applying the lessons that we've learned and to keep walking in them.

But I love the fact that you've called this out that we can grow and struggle at the same time or in the same, you know, calendar space or what have you, because I think sometimes we do have that all or nothing mentality of I either have to overcome this and be good at it or none of the work is meaningful. And every step of progress, every step of growth is important and meaningful. Yeah. Amen. Amen. All right. So I

I still have several. Another lesson I have learned and it goes along with that struggling and growing. I still have a lot of healing to do and that is okay. And Ginger, you talked about that, but I had an example that the Lord gave me that I really wanted to share. I have come a long way and this is a lifelong journey. Our healing journeys are not a race, but an opportunity to walk with God in this broken world as He molds and shapes us for now and

There is a difference between a race and a walk. A race pushes you to do things quickly to win, versus a walk is an intentional time to slow down as you are not walking to win. A race leaves you out of breath at the end, versus a walk can cause you to take deep breaths throughout and end feeling calmer. A race is usually done alone, not always, but sometimes.

A walk is an invitation to journey with others. When we are on the racetrack of life, it's hard to slow down to hear God's voice and enjoy his blessings. When we walk with him, he can point out the pitfalls in our path and point out the blessings he's bestowing upon us to enjoy. Any thoughts? That will preach. The Lord gave me that. That is all the Lord.

Ginger Harrington (37:30.686)
One of the things that's just is so evident to me, this has been in many ways a very challenging, not just year, but a very challenging season of several years for you. And yet look what God is doing. he is helping you to overcome. He's helping you to grow. He's helping you to grow stronger. Old things are passing away. The new things are getting more solid in you.

And that is part of what this whole habit of hope is about, is being able to notice what God's teaching us and inherent in that process is also the ability to notice how far we've come. Yeah. Right. And, know, maybe what's still left to go, but for this exercise, not only do we want to learn from and remember what God's done and taught us this year,

We want to celebrate that. Yeah. Because we have a father who loves us so much that he is working in us through our advocate, through our Holy Spirit. And he loves to do these things. And I love the fact that we have a God that redeems our hard places in our hard seasons and being able to capture and hold on and remember to celebrate the benefit that God is

doing redemptive work every day. You know, the gospel is for every single day. Thanks for sharing some of these beautiful and helpful lessons that God's been teaching you this year, sis. Well, thanks for being as excited as I am about getting to do this as a podcast. And we just hope that it has encouraged all y'all to do the same. And we want to hear from you, right, Ginger?

Yes, yes. So please be sure to catch us on social media. Our social handles are in the show notes and we would love to hear what you're learning this year. One of the things I also wanted to share with our friends is as we wrap up 2024, let's celebrate what God has done. Let's hold fast to hope. Yeah.

Ginger Harrington (39:49.726)
I want to invite our listeners to join me for the Wellness Challenge, a seven day email series to help you refocus on the healthy habits for body, soul and spirit in your life. There's one thing each day and it'll just help you get your mind set, your orientation for the year to start well so that you can live well and continue to grow in the things that God's going to do in your life this year.

So friends, thanks so much for joining us. Larissa, thanks for so transparently sharing lessons that you've learned this year, but also those lessons for the most part have come out of struggles and you have shared those as well. So as we wrap up this episode of Habits of Hope, let's take a moment to remember reflection isn't just about looking back. It's about seeing God's faithfulness woven through every moment.

good moments and the hard ones. By making space to reflect and to pray through these things, we get clarity, perspective, and a renewed sense of hope for what's ahead. Because of nothing else, it reminds us that God is at work. He's always teaching us, and we have the Holy Spirit who is not only teaching us, but also bringing to our remembrance the things that God has taught us and the things His Word says.

So this practice isn't something to just reserve for the end of the year. I love it as a rhythm for the end of the year, but it is also a practice that can help shape our lives every day, every week, every month, every year. It helps us to stay anchored in God's goodness, no matter what the season. As you step into the days ahead, my friends, I encourage you to take time to reflect on what you've learned this year. Write it down, pray over it.

Ask God to show you how he's been at work in your story. Celebrate your lessons in the areas where you've grown, even if they're small victories. We love to celebrate around here. We'd love to celebrate with you. Let God's faithfulness inspire your next steps as you enter into 2025. So thanks so much for joining us today, friends. And if this episode has encouraged you, please pass it along, share it with your friends and anyone who might need a reminder.

Ginger Harrington (42:15.112)
of God's presence in their life. We'd love for you to follow our podcast and leave a review on Apple if you haven't already. Larissa, thanks for sharing with us. Any last words, my friend? Just grateful to get to do this thing together and looking forward to hearing from you all because we know that there are lots of lessons learned and so you have some amazing stories and you've been sharing and we appreciate that because it encourages and inspires us. So keep sharing.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Well, friends keep making small choices every day to hold on to hope and let that lead you closer to God who holds your future. Keep reflecting. Keep trusting. Keep hoping. We'll see you in 2025. Woohoo! Yes!