By Lisa 
I have a secret. We all do.
Secret ONE: Know that we all struggle. Some with addiction, some with impossible standards of beauty or achievement or family problems. No one is the perfect parent, mother, father, student, worker, manager, homemaker, lover, friend.
No matter how great your day or week has gone, at the end of the day you know that framed certificate given during the big company meeting was just a piece of paper from a template found online and printed from someone’s computer. The trophy you were handed was ordered from a catalogue and also presented thousands of other people. You have a nagging feeling way back in your head that you didn’t deserve any accolades, and your failures replay in your mind over and over at night. You brush your teeth at night and look at your face in the mirror. You know who you are. Your eyes give you away.
Maybe your week was good. Maybe your year was. Maybe it wasn’t.
Maybe you have failed at most everything in your life. Maybe you are ashamed and afraid to even try because of it. But you keep waking up each day and you keep trying.
At the end of the day, you wish people, someone, knew that you tried. You really tried on some things, hopefully the more important things, and you actually made a difference sometimes, even a little. A lot of times you didn’t make any difference at all. But you tried.
You tried to smile at strangers, you donated a toy, you said a prayer for someone. You helped a family member with some small task, you bought a lunch for a friend, you donated to church. You tried.
But no one noticed. All they noticed were your failures: the times you missed the mark, or said something inappropriate.
You wish someone would notice, just once or even twice how very, very hard you tried, whether you succeeded even in a small way or failed spectacularly.
You, like most people, keep a big stone wall up. No one knows how much you struggle or try or fail or succeed. You pretend everything is great. We all pretend everything is great.
But you know even if no one else knows, that you have tried. Past the point of fatigue, grief, anger and tears. You tried.
At the end of the day, at the end of the year, we have all tried, mostly as best we could with what we knew or had experience with. We tried even if no one knew or cared.
But I will share with you, Friend, that I know how hard you try. More importantly, God knows you try.
It matters, whether here or eternity. You matter. God don’t make no mistakes.
Secret TWO: The only way to feel better is to give back. Let other people know you appreciate them even if they have tried and failed. Humans are, humans and we all try and fail over and over. It’s not about letting people off the hook; it’s about simply acknowledging that people are trying.
Let’s try again–this time to make 2017 the year of appreciation.