Spilled Milk

It’s 2023, and some of us — if not many of us — are still upset that we didn’t quite accomplish some specific things that we had wished to in 2022. For my case, I had wished to release two books before December’s end. Guess what, the festivities got me so busy, and the goals didn’t go as planned!

One of the top stressors of my 2022 were deadlines. Clients placed unreasonable deadlines for work given, and even I, accepted them. It was God who found me, drowning and choking and wearing out as I worked to beat the deadlines, and advised;

“Why don’t you call them and ask for an extension of the deadline?”

I always took His advice, and the clients provided that grace of extension. This lessened on the stress, which had caused me multiple migraines in the latter part of the year having added on other factors such as school.

Sometimes, I personally blame us. We put timelines for a thing and yet we do not even know its full gestation period. It’s like a pregnant woman saying she’d want to give birth two months after she’s confirmed that she’s heavy. We all know that that will be a premature child, and there’ll be consequences, of which death is among!

We then get stressed that the child is still in the womb for more months, not understanding that it’s crucial for that foetus. Perhaps some of our goals are like that: in need of extra womb time.

Other than that, God would like you to extend some deadlines. As I speak, I continue to work on those books that were meant to be out last year. I had sulked at the fact that they were ‘late’. But who determines their lateness? You. That means some of them should not have the lateness’ factor added to them. The most prudent requisite should be the goal getting done, and not how fast it should get toasted.

I think a goal would rather be late, than be forgotten or trashed or come out half baked. ‘It’s no use crying over spilled milk’ the old proverb says. The spilled milk here could be 2022 gone, and your goals still staring back. Well, carry them on into the new year. One denominator is still common: the implementer of the goals, which is you. Some people died last year. They’d not make it to this year. But you have another chance here.

God reminded me of the story of Bathsheba’s first miscarriage. She’d been sited by King David you see, and when they slept together, she became pregnant,and yet her husband had been away serving the country. Questions would have risen among the people. David tried to get Uriah (Bathsheba’s actual husband) to sleep with her but he failed.

In the end he killed Uriah to cover the entire thing up. By prophecy, the child was sentenced to death because of the murder David indirectly committed. David tried to plead with God. He had spilled milk. But none of his efforts reversed the verdict. When the child went, David didn’t whine about it. He arose and ate:

2 Samuel 12:19-22 When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.” So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped.

Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What [is] this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child [while he was] alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell [whether] the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’

The spilled milk were the results and lies that led to others after the adultery David had done. This is equivalent to the failure of us to hit those goals before 31st December 2022 — the same failure of David to save the child out of adultery.

But guess what, David later got another son with Bathsheba shortly after. All an allegory, to tell us not to dwell on what’s lost: the lost time; but to focus on the new opportunities like the present time.

The lost time can be redeemed if we carry on those goals to completion with all we have got. What’s more, God said He’d restore the time that the cankerworm ate. Maybe you were not just lazy, but in hospital for a long time. Maybe you were very busy with your workplace; and what was significant got lost within the stirs.

Before you make the new year resolutions, I’d like to encourage you to begin with those incomplete ones from last year, and continue with the brand new later on the list. Don’t cry over the lost year.

Here’s a new chance for progress and profit. God’s here to perfect all that concerns you. Here’s here to perfect all that concerns your 2023. Here’s here to perfect all that concerns your goals, and to offer you a new glass of milk for the spilled…for He’s the portion of your cup, and inheritance.

Enjoy His goodness and abundance this year.

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Psalms 65:11 You (God) crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip [with] abundance.