18 Things I learned This Year
Last year, for my 17th birthday, I shared 17 things I had learned that year. I’m a huge believer in everyone having something to teach you! So, for my 18th birthday, I decided to share 18 things I’ve learned this year. Many of these things I’ve learned from others. So, I’m just passing the knowledge on. And to go along with this I've included 12 of my favourite photos, one for each month of the past year.
1. When you give something fully and wholeheartedly to God, He’ll do great things with it!
I have a problem with trusting God. Sometimes, I fear giving up control to God, even though I know deep inside me that He’s the best One to give things to. I know He will take good care of it and He knows what's best for me. But sometimes I still struggle to give everything to him. So, this past year, I’ve been learning a lot about trusting Him. So many times this past year, He asked me to give something to Him and I hesitated. But every time I give it to Him, He does something great with it - something I could never do and could never imagine doing!
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| June 2017- I love our students. They're so beautiful and so lovely! |
2. You have to choose the good things in life. You have to choose love and joy - daily.
In life, very often you have to choose the good things. On bad days, you have to choose joy. You have to choose love over hate. You have to chose to put in a full effort. On days when nothing is going your way, you have to choose to still praise God. Nothing good comes out of a bad attitude. Happiness is a choice so chose it daily!
3. Take photos of others but don’t be shy to be in others'!
I’ve learned that photos of others are so valuable to me. I always have my own face; I can see it in the mirror anytime I choose. On the other hand, I don’t always have those I love. So while I love photos of others, I sometimes shy away from them taking photos of me. I've learned, though, that others also enjoy seeing me and one day my family will enjoy looking at photos of the younger Darcy and her crazy life. So while I still prefer to take photos of other people and things, it’s also good for me to let people take photos of me.
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| July 2017- Smile! A simple non-verbal communication understood by everyone! |
4. I’m a people pleaser way more than I thought I was.
We once hosted a girl on a team who talked about her 'chief idol'. A chief idol is one thing that you most idolize or put before God. I’ve noticed that mine is pleasing people. Sometimes, I put making others happy in front of everything else including my happiness and God. It’s the one thing I go back to justify my actions. It’s the one thing I go back to feel accomplished or happy.
5. Love is more than just a word. It’s an attitude and an action!
I wrote a whole blog about this one. But in a nutshell, I learned that love is more about actions than just words. You don’t just love by saying “I love you”. You love by the way you live and treat others. Click here to read the full blog post.
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| August 2017- The water village is a beautiful place that always reminds me there's another way of living! |
6. I should be more grateful for my parents!
Our parents do so, so, so much for us! But so often I just see it as their job. It’s their job to love me. It’s their job to cook for me. It’s their job to buy me stuff. It’s their job to take me places. But they don’t have to and so many people’s parents don’t do those things for their kids. I’m so fortunate and blessed with wonderful parents. So often I take them for granted. Too often, I forget that they’re doing all these things despite the fact that they don’t actually have to. So, I need to learn how to be more grateful to my parents.
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| September 2017- A view of God's beautiful creation from a mountaintop! |
7. I LOVE music!
I’m constantly listening to music. I listen to music when I’m getting ready and showering in the morning. I listen to music when I’m writing emails and working on my laptop. I listen to music when I’m relaxing and colouring. I listen to music when I’m cooking. And I listen to music when I’m getting ready for bed. I listen to all kinds of music too. I listen to rap and worship music. I listen to pop and country. I think it’s a coping mechanism. It’s a way for me to control my environment or block my environment out. It calms me down when I’m stressed. It can help me process feeling or worship God. It helps me have a good time when I’m in a good mood.
8. Appreciate the silence too!
Following what I just said, silence is great too! I’m learning that I don’t always have to fill the silence with my voice or music. Silence is beautiful! Sitting on the roof under the stars or standing in the doorway watch lightning are beautiful things to do in silence.
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| October 2017- A simple symbol or love and equality! |
9. Home is different for everyone!
Everyone has a different definition of 'home'. Everyone’s home looks different too. Some people have one home and have always had one home. Some people have different places they call home and have had many different homes in their life. For some people, home is a house and for others, it's a place like a certain city or country. For some, home is where they grew up and for others, it’s where they are now. For some, home is where their family is and for others, it’s just where their bed is. Some people spend almost all their time at home and others spend almost no time at home. Some people don’t even live where they consider their home to be! For me? I call many places home: Canada, Australia, Cambodia. Sometimes I just call 'the West' home. But home is also here where I am, with my family and my job. If I’m visiting a place, sometimes I call my hotel room home. For me, home is just a familiar place where it can feel safe, where I can relax and where I feel comfortable. That’s what home is to me.
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| November 2017- Cambodian Buddhist monks walking down the main street of Battambang. |
10. I love living in Community!
I wrote a whole blog post about this one, too. But this past year I’ve lived in the mission house. This means I’ve shared this house with over one hundred different people over the past ten months. And I’ve loved almost every minute of it! There have obviously been difficulties when living with as many as 40 people at a time. But, through this, I’ve learned a lot about myself and other people. If you want to learn more about this one, here’s the link to that blog post.
11. God made an absolutely beautiful world and it’s such a privilege that we get to live in it!
Have you ever looked out of the window as you’re driving and just thought “wow!” God made our world so beautiful! He gave us sunrises, sunsets, flowers, lightning, vibrant colours, clouds, trees, oceans, mountains and so much more! What a privilege it is that I get to live in it! So often we are so consumed with ourselves or what we’re doing that we forget to look up and around at the beautiful gifts God gave us! We don’t deserve this, but he gave it to us anyway. I would highly recommend taking some time to just look, just watch. Watch as the world passes by on your long bus ride. Watch as powerful lightning strikes on the horizon. Watch as the waves wash over the sand. It’s a beautiful world! Let's appreciate it!
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| December 2017- Visiting a temple with some friends who were visiting us. |
12. True Joy is unconditional!
True joy and only true joy is unconditional. This means that our joy does not hinge on our circumstances. True joy is rooted in Christ and not in the things of this world. And Christ is unconditional. He doesn't move or change. His love for us doesn't waver. He is steadfast. So when our joy is rooted in him it will also be steadfast and it will not waver. “But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God.” -Philippians 2:17. Even if Paul lost his life, he would still rejoice! There's a joy that’s truly unconditional!
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| January 2018- I had about six photos to choose from for this month and I guess this one's my favourite of them. |
13. Jesus must come first!
I have found that when I start my day with Jesus, it makes all the difference. It reminds me where my priorities are. God is and must always be my first love and my biggest priority. When I start my day with Him, it sets this reminder for the rest of my day. Just like any other relationship, you have to intentionally invest in it. And this is how I do it. It gives me a time to talk to my Heavenly Father and a time for Him to talk to me. I must say, I am not the best at starting my day with God yet. I often make excuses and miss out. I’m definitely still learning! But, when I start my day with prayer, worship, and his word, my day is always better.
14. Chai lattes are wonderful!
Okay. Here’s a lighter one. Chai lattes are SO good! I would have one every day if I could! I love coffee and all, but I actually prefer this. If you’ve never tried one I highly recommend it! Now, back to the serious stuff!
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| February 2018- I had so many photos to choose from for this month and I just had to choose my family! A girl on one of our teams took this photo for us. |
15. I’ve been learning a lot about peace and trusting God.
There’s so much I could say about this one! I sometimes struggle with stress, anxiety, and worry. I tend to get too stressed too quickly. I’ve learned that this is a sign that I’m not trusting God with something. I worry over things I shouldn’t. I know, deep down, that it will all be okay, but I still worry. So, God’s been teaching me to trust Him and have peace in Him. It’s still a struggle I deal with, but now I have the knowledge and tools to deal with it better. God is so big and all-powerful! There is nothing he can't do! That means He can calm my worried heart. I always want to know what’s going to happen and I’m impatient to see what the future holds. But I’m learning to have peace in knowing that God has a plan. Here are some verses that have helped me: Zechariah 8:6, John 14:27, 1 Corinthians 15:58, and Psalm 28:10-11
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| March 2018- The kiddos I nanny had to make an appearance here sometime. I've learnt to love my Job since then! |
16. Colouring is really therapeutic for me.
I love to colour. I have a couple of 'adult' colouring books. 'Adult' just means they’re more detailed. Sometimes I just love to sit down for a while, play some music and colour. It’s really good for de-stressing. It allows me to unplug and just focus on the colours and lines. It gives my racing mind something to concentrate on. Or if I wanted, I could choose a more simple image and hang out with somebody at the same time. This gives my restless hands something to do while I concentrate on the conversation.
17. I’m not very bold.
I find it very easy to share my faith online. But, I struggle with boldness in real life. I’m afraid of peoples' judgement. I’m afraid of rejection. And, for some reason, I'm not even very bold with my friends and family, the people I trust the most. But, I know that God calls us to boldness. And he has slowly but surely been teaching me to be bolder. Here are some verses about boldness Ephesians 3:11-12, 2 Corinthians 3:11-12, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 27:14
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| April 2018- This was the month we opened our library cafe that I love! Plus I absolutely love my brother!!! |
18. Just because something is different or not our culture does not mean we have to mix it!We see so many people come into Cambodia and try to fix everything. And its true that some things desperately need to be fixed, such as the education system, poverty and littering. But some things don't need to be fixed just because they're different from the west. For example, the road rules or lack of road rules. Traffic and driving here are very different from back home. But that doesn't necessarily mean its broken. Somehow it works! Somehow there are fewer accidents than you'd expect. Somehow we all just know whats going on and how it works. And Khmer food may not be your favourite and that's okay. But we don't have to try to change Khmer culture. It's beautiful and unique just the way it is.
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| May 2018 - And to finish this off: I love this man. I loved his visit. This photo is a reminder of him and the time we spent together here. |
Darcy-Rea
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