During my sophomore year of college, I took a philosophy class that examined the main religions of the world. In the class I learned about Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Buddhism, and Christianity.

After taking this class,I started to question a lot about Christianity (the religion that I mainly identify with) and the bible. Christians are taught to use as a guide of how they should live their lives. But as I started to study and research more, I realized that I did not agree with everything that's in the bible. And most Christians don't agree with or abide by everything that is in the Good Book either, whether they want to accept it or not.

I also started to think about the sermons that I have heard in church, particularly on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Sermons on these days usually speak of leaving all of the issues of the former year behind and preparing to take on the new year with a new attitude. And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, that is how I believe people should walk into every day of every year.

HOWEVER,

In the past few years New Year's Eve and Day services have been feeling like a repetitive show to me. I would leave feeling void and unmoved because the sermon was too artificial. Maybe you have heard similar sermons around the arrival of the new year in which the pastor made God sound like a magician – claiming He's going to give you this material thing and that material thing (not faith, strength, wisdom or other tools that aren't tangible, but are more valuable than anything money could ever buy).

I honestly had to check myself and determine if I was being too skeptical. I ultimately decided that the previous "It's Your Year" sermons had not moved me because they felt heavily sugarcoated and dishonest.

What I personally feel those sermons should speak on is overcoming the hardships of the current year and preparing for the new year accordingly.

For example, dealing with death of loved ones, divorce, losing your job, home, rebuilding strained family relationships, cutting ties with toxic people, and everything in between are more honest sermons to be preached to a congregation – in my opinion anyway.

If you feel like the "It's Your Year" Sermons are not fulfilling enough for you, I encourage you to seek answers about God for yourself. I am not one to push my spiritual beliefs on anyone, as I am a firm believer that God does not want robots (and no one responds well to anything that you force on them). but if you feel you need something more and you're not growing, find a church where the leader of the congregation is going to be honest about the word of God.

It does you absolutely no good to stay in a group where you are not growing and hearing repetitive sermons.

While every day is not going to be completely positive, it's important to remind ourselves that everything we need to succeed is already inside of us. It is just more difficult for some of us to find it. You must have faith that it can be done.

Here are my personal spiritual growth hacks for the New Year and beyond: Meet the Creator halfway, and let your life be a reflection of the God you serve.