Thoughts on Elul 1

It is well known the acronym that has been given regarding the upcoming month of Elul:
א'ני ל'דודי ו'דודי ל'י
I am for my beloved, meaning Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as my beloved is for me.

Many of us approach Elul with the first half of this passuk very well. I am all for Hashem. We start of Elul with great plans of how we are going to spend the remaining time until Rosh Hashana doing teshuvah, improving ourselves and changing ourselves. We hope to achieve new heights and goals.

But how many of us actually pull through with our dreams for Elul? A lot of times, a little bit into Elul and we see our plans dashed, together with the fire of teshuvah that we started out with.

Or better asked, how many of us don't even bother to dream, because we know that there's a chance of failure?

Maybe its time we started realizing the second have of the passuk:
ודודי לי
My Beloved is to me.
My Beloved is still with me, even in my failure. ה' לי ולא אירא Hashem is with me, so I do not fear to dream, I do not fear to set goals, I do not fear to strive.

I know that Hashem takes great pleasure and pride from every step I take, and even if my teshuvah is far from perfection, even if it has become the exact opposite of what I had in mind, but I always know: My Beloved is with me.

With this second half of the passuk in mind, may Hashem help us that we should have the strength to hold strong to the first half, and be zocheh to Teshuvah B'Emes.