Every new year, tons of people come up with resolutions for the year. I have never been one to write a to-do list for the year, I just make mental notes of things…. This year, instead of a resolution, I am holding on to a slogan – Do Me, Be Me, Be Happy. This sums up the way I see myself in 2016 and beyond.

As a working woman, wife and mother, it’s easy to get carried away with tasks; juggling schedules, taking care of everyone else but yourself. More often than not, the end result is an unhappy woman, functioning on autopilot. As it turns out, women across different generations can identify with this description. Women are amazing creations of God, as He has given us great tasks in life. We are only able to achieve these if we lean on Him for strength, look to Him for wisdom, seek His face when unsure of what to do and dwell in His presence for our maker knows it all, sees it all. His plan for is for us to be happy, extremely happy. Proverbs 17: 22 supports this as it says that “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

2015 was a proper turning point for me, I decided to spice up things, create ‘me’ time in midst of a hectic daily schedule. Yes, this might seem like a selfish choice, but it’s far from it. The only way to be productive or useful to those around me is ‘do me, be me’. This is a happy place for me, one where I find myself doing things, functioning at my best. In the last few years, I neglected me, by not doing the things that made me happy. I had stopped working out actively, reading novels, cooking fun for the fun of it (I love FOOD), hanging out with friends and so on. On the outside, I seemed to be functioning perfectly but on the inside I was dying a slow death. My schedules worked perfectly, but I did not. I found myself almost completely drained as I took on the super woman role at home, sorting out whatever needed to be sorted out, just taking care of it all.

Someone close to me reiterated something I had been told a couple of years ago – focus on being you, focus on achieving all you want to achieve, focus on living a life worthy of Him. You can say it took a couple of years for me to fully understand what this meant, but I am happy to finally understand it. I am a better person for embracing this message.

A happy and fulfilled person, wife, mother is who we should all seek to be. I have started going to the gym again, found time to read novels and I have started cooking more (I never really stopped; I just stuck to pretty much the same recipes). An unhappy person will only breed unhappiness, and what will be the end result of this? Too much negativity…

Our maker wants us to be happy. He created us for a purpose, which we should all seek to accomplish. Yes, there will be bumps, curves and rollercoaster(s). However, holding on to Him and seeking to be who He created us to be is a great starting point.  In 2016, I choose Do Me, Be Me, Be Happy and I encourage you to Do You, Be You, Be Happy, enjoy the madness. God will take care of all else.