By Britny Belskis
Happy one-year anniversary, Friends.
I am so excited to share with you that I’m celebrating one year of working with this newspaper! When I first started this journey, I was in a season of transition, and I remember it so clearly.
I was in my last semester working toward my education degree when I decided to continue my education in ministry instead. I had given my testimony at Celebrate Recovery, and got hired/let go from a job I loved dearly. Maybe you can relate to transitions in your own life? Whether it is with the stress of moving to another home, dealing with family issues, or even life in general, it can be very overwhelming and feels like the transition period will never end. I’m here to tell you, the best is yet to come!
Looking through from the other side now, I’m so overwhelmed with so much joy and excitement of what God has done in just one year of being a part of the Turner Publishing family paper. Every month I get to share life with you, and that is one of my favorite things to do. In one year, I have seen people coming together in unity from these monthly articles, heard stories of how the articles have been a positive light in the darkest of places and changed people’s lives. I never expected God would give me a platform of speaking love to those around me! This has been a crazy, amazing roller-coaster ride, and I’m so thrilled to be where I am now, living the sweet life. Here are some ways we all can live in the sweet life.
The first thing that helps me in a season of transition is to never give up; keep going after your dreams. For example, for me it was to continue my education to become a youth pastor. There were some people who said, because of my learning and visual impairments, it wouldn’t be good for me to continue my education. Let me tell you, words can hurt, but I didn’t listen to them because God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. He will see you through whatever he is calling you to do in this life. The negative words people say don’t have stability in what he has for you. I didn’t listen to those words of negativity because God called me into this, and he is providing a way for it to happen.
The second thing that has worked well to keep me encouraged is writing little notes of encouragement to myself. I know, this sounds so different from writing notes to others, but it really works! I have these little Post-it(R) notes that I place around the house — in my books and in my binder — encouraging myself to keep going. One of them read, “You got this girl! So, when you are going through the transition life, know the sweet life is just one step away!”
