I’m not sure if it happened after I turned 40. Or perhaps it was the result of some rough patches in my path. Then again, maybe it’s just the nostalgia of the season, the end of one year and the beginning of the new. Whatever the reason, I find myself reflecting on the journey that Jesus and I have been walking together. It’s a journey of lessons learned and experience gained; of questions encountered and friendships grown; of previously undiscovered depths in my Savior.

Here are some of the life lessons God has been teaching me this year.

As this year draws to a close, here are some of the life lessons God has been teaching me this year:

• Accept responsibility, but don’t linger over your mistakes.
• Believe in God and others, regardless of how you feel.
• Cherish your friends and family, for you might not always have them.
• Develop a thankful heart.
• Extend forgiveness to others, as this enables God to work.
• Face your fears; don’t run from them.
• Grace is often revealed through pain.
• Hurting people sometimes hurt others.
• Indulge in life’s simple pleasures.
• Just because it’s right, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
• Kindness works when authority fails.
• Learn to laugh at yourself—and with others.
• Minister to those around you: whether you feel like it, whether you have time, whether it costs you something. Simply minister!
• Niceties in life never go out of style.
• Offer a smile whether you want to or not, even if it’s not returned.
• Pray when you want to, and especially when you don’t.
• Quiet your heart before making a decision.
• Respect others—their decisions, their differing points of view, their feelings, their space.
• Share Jesus at all times and in all places.
• Trust your intuition.
• Understand your own limitations.
• Value those around you.
• Work isn’t everything.
• X-rays don’t always show the heart. Only God can do that.
• Yesterday doesn’t necessarily determine today.
• Zeal never substitutes for compassion.

What about you? What life lessons is our Father teaching you? May the Lord help us to learn His lessons, for all His lessons are love.

Jill Morikone is vice president and chief operations officer for Three Angels Broadcasting Network, a supporting Adventist television network. She and her husband, Greg, live in southern Illinois and enjoy ministering together for Jesus.