#BN2015Epilogues: 2015 Made Oluwatoyin Know & Love God More

Last year BellaNaija Features put together an inspiring feature series to round off the year. The 2014 Epilogues featured 10 real people who took an introspective look at their year and wrote about it. This year, we decided to make the call public to our readers. {Click here if you missed it} It is our hope and desire that we will have enough entries to have a story up every day from the 1st to the 31st of December. We have received an impressive number of entries and we hope that you will share yours with us.

We kicked off the series and so far we’ve had the following entries: Jennifer G , Morountodun , Victory, Mayowa ,  Harmony ,Dekky , OJ , Busola , Modupe, The Prodigal Daughter , Adetola, Ayomikun , Omami Jojo , Kehinde , Iember ,  Hadiza , Florence , Amaha , Vanessa , Winifred , Anne-Rose, Edie ,  Chidi ,  Rita  , Caleb , Yinka, Ife and Bukkie.

We have had an overwhelming response to the call for Epilogues and we’re grateful to everyone who has sent in an entry. We will do our best to share every story we received before the deadline (even if it runs into the new year. Because BellaNaijarians are so awesome!)  Today, we’re sharing Oluwatoyin’s story. In what she calls her most defining year yet, 2015 was one that helped her find her purpose.

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For me, 2015 has been my most challenging year ever, but also a defining year in my life. The year pushed me to think of what I really wanted to live for. It gave me a better understanding of a favourite bible verse of mine, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” I know now that all the difficulties I went through in the year worked out good things in me but I didn’t see it then.

January 2015 started on a low note because there were things I expected in my life the previous year and had not seen. So, at the beginning of the year, I had New Year resolutions, and I had goals I wanted to achieve. February came and it looked like nothing good was forthcoming. My birthday was in the middle of February and I remembered I cried a lot (I have since then promised myself never to do that again). I could not see reasons to be happy even though I was alive and well.

At this point, I also had challenges in my family. I had to be strong and look past my life to see what I could do for others around me so I worked harder and prayed more. Things were okay for a while till I started to have issues in my relationship of about 4 years. We later broke up and then I understood what it meant to be betrayed and heartbroken.

The next months were tough but by then, I knew what the year meant for me. 2015 made me know and love God more and it also made me become more alert to people around me. I had always been a lover of God and people but then, I understood people better and I could relate to the challenges they were going through. I became something of a ‘life coach’, and I found joy in impacting lives.

Recently, I read on BellaNaija about the Do it Afraid conference. I attended it and it reinforced my beliefs and challenged me to do more. I am about to start my blog where real life issues will be discussed with the mission to restore hope and help people fulfil their dreams. It seems to me that the difficulties in 2015 (which is more than what I could write here), woke me up from a slumber. I am awake now and I can see clearer.

So, now I know that difficult moments can be defining moments and in every situation, I have learned to be thankful. I am stronger, better and wiser. I am thankful for family and friends. I am thankful for those things we take for granted: good health, great people around me, unique life experiences.

I believe 2016 will be a great year. I pray it will be for us all and for our country. Keep believing, keep hoping, be diligent and never, ever give up. Better days are ahead.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime | Sam74100