Forgive me Blogger for I have sinned....

........it's been several months since my last blog!!

At the end of a year or beginning of a new year, I usually like to take some time to reflect on the past year. I read my journal entries and see what kinds of things I struggled with. I look at the goals I set and see how many of them I reached. Sadly usually very few. I also like to see what kinds of things I prayed for or believed God for. For the past couple of years the result wasn’t very encouraging or positive. This year I kind of hit the ground running because I was busy with friends and family and starting classes. So a couple of weeks into the new year, I took a few minutes to reflect on 2010. And I loved the results. It seems I have reached a few of my goals and seen some things I have been praying for years for come to pass!!

It helps to strengthen my faith and encourages me to believe for even more! I met and got to know some new friends who seriously impacted my life. They encouraged me in my faith, challenged some long-held beliefs, and showed me another side of myself. I love getting to know new people. Making new friends. Experiencing another world outside myself. People who stretch me and cause me to re-evaluate things I think I know.

I gave up some things last year that I thought I had to have. Things I thought I wanted. I admitted that maybe....just maybe God had a better plan in mind than what I thought I wanted for my life. And as always He has been faithful and I've gained so much more than I've given up. It's beautiful. I'm still a work in progress....there is so much more I want and need to work on, but I'm also excited to see progress.

I've been challenge to choose a word or theme for what 2011 will look like...kind of like a vision and I feel like 2011 is going to be a year of Growing and Changing!! I am excited to see what that growth and change looks like.