My Year in Review

I ended 2007 on the beach, on a cold, but spectacularly clear night. You could see every star in the sky. For most of the last hour of the year I sat on the beach looking up at the sky and out over the ocean and thinking about God's love for me. It was incredible!

Like most people do this time of year, I've been thinking back over the past 12 months. It was a good year for me and the Lord did a lot of new things in my life. It was hard at times, but there was also a lot of laughter. If my 2007 had a sub-title, I think it would be "A Year of New Beginnings" (that may be redundant but it's what keeps coming to mind).

I'm pretty sure I've already written about this, but the most exciting realization for me this past year is that God loves me! I've lived most of my life thinking that God has to love me, that's His job, and so I never understood the big deal when people went on and on about His love. But this year, my Father slowly began to show me what His love is all about. It would take me way to long to put it into words but I'm beginning to get an idea of how deep and wide and long the Father's love is for me. I'm excited to see how He continues this in this new year.

Here are a few other things that I did in 2007:

• moved to a new part of town;
• started going to Sunday School again (after 3 years of not going);
• made some wonderful new friends;
• sang karaoke for the first time;
• went on a "real" mission trip;
• saw lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! (really it was giraffes, elephants, and rhinos, but still, Oh My!!);
  
• learned what "dispensation" means;
• actually began to like working with elementary school students;
• learned what it means to weep with those who weep;
• began to put the waltz into action;
• fell in love (with about 18 five year olds);
• learned how to order the really good drinks at Starbucks;
• took tennis lessons;
• discovered the many puzzle pieces of my life;
• worked my 9th year of Alabama Governor's School;
• learned to watch what I say because everything can be misunderstood;
• let some friends down;
• began to long for Home.

I don't have any resolutions for the new year but I do look forward in anticipation for what the Lord has in store for me. "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9 (from Is. 64:4).