Notes About New Years
As I look back of the year 2014 I get a little bit overwhelmed. “I really did all that?” I wonder in a state of speechless wonderment. Wow.
A lot of firsts: my first time driving a car, first blog post. The first time I got asked to write for someone. The first time I had a kitten. The first time I played on the worship team at my church. The first time I worked on the yearbook at my school. The first time I ran for Student Rep (also at my school.) The first time I went to a concert.
I remember disappointments and trials. Fun times with my family and friends.
Tear fests at youth group and staying up all night with my friends as we shared our innermost dreams and plans for the future as we painted our nails.
Remodeling the kitchen. Camping. Hiking in snow up to our knees (in May…) Swimming at the beach. (Swimming with a certain JD who somehow cheats… I’m still trying to figure out how he cheats but he must because otherwise I would win.) Preaching my first sermon. Standing in the falling snow trying to grab the fluffy white so flakes out of the air.
Church services. All 50 of them that I made it to.
Teaching Preschool… The one time this little girl said, “What did you do, leave your brain in bed today?” The time(s) we sang at the top of our lungs “I MAY NEVER MARCH IN THE INFANTRY” as we galloped around the table. (Ok. We ran.)
Playing capture the flag and tag at the park with my friends during lunch.
Running thought the sprinklers on the last day of school. (And getting amazingly wet- yet having so much fun!)
My life will never be the same. Ever.
The memories of this year will stay with me until I’m old enough to tell these stories to my grand children. (I think that I’ll be the grandma with the neat white bun who sits on a rocking chair on the front porch with all the little neighborhood kids sitting there, amazed that someone that old can still remember so much. Considering that 1998 has a ‘1’ in front of it, I’ll probably be considered really, really old. Yikes!)
If you would have asked me at the beginning of 2014 “What do you think your year will hold?” I probably would have just shrugged.
I never would have dreamed of all the adventures that I got to be a part of.
This year I learned something. God is control. He has plans for me that are a million trillion times better than anything that I could think or ever imagine.
I also learned how to write. I learned the beauty of words and the joy behind them. What is funny is that if you would have told me last year that I was going to run a blog and that I was going to love writing; I would have probably laughed in your face.
Now it’s hard to get me to stop writing.
(I had a word problem in math the other day… Let’s just say thirty minutes later Fred had an awesome story to go along with the fact that oranges cost 12 cents apiece. Yeah…)
Other then my amazing life, I have made new friends, and gotten to know the old ones better. (Which… has been amazing.)
Something that I was wondering as I was contemplating this blog post was, “What do I look forward to next year?”
Humm…. That is a killer question.
I’ll have to say, “Adventures.” I look forward to going on a million daring adventures. I look forward to seeing God move in ways that I could ever think or imagine. I can’t wait to see people come to know him, and people turning their eyes upon the King who forever saves.
So ask me my dreams for 2015. Ask me what I hope will happen.
Because I hope, and I dream that God will use me to change the world.
Rachel Joy Editor in chief of “Notes from my Corner of Creation” and resident dreamer.
