Another year gone...

And a new one to come! This year has gone by incredibly fast, filled with its ups and downs. I've laughed harder and cried more this year than years prior. I've experienced much growth in my walk with Christ. Growth through times filled with blessings and joy, and though times of pain and hardships. I've made new friends and re-connected with old ones. I've seen what real love looks like, and how beautifully a love story can be shaped when left in the more-than-capable hands of God. I've learned the importance of having a thankful heart, mind, and attitude. I've come to see what it means to be accepting, and to remain committed even when the easiest option was to just give up.

As this year comes to a close and a new one opens up, I look forward to what is to come. To what 2012 has to bring. There will be good times and there will be bad times. There will be laughter and there will be tears. There will be joys and gladness, and there will be pain and sorrow. Events that seemed random in the past will be given new meaning, and new, puzzling events will unfold. Blessings will come, and so will challenges. But despite this ever shifting and changing walk of life, I can stand firm knowing one thing will remain: God. Jesus Christ. My personal savior and lord. Who He was is who He is; and who He is He always will be. He will always remain the same. His love will never change. His great love will always remain great. His infinite mercy will always remain infinite. His unfathomable grace will always remain unfathomable.

Thank you Lord for this past year. Thank you for how you have richly blessed me. Thank you for how you have molded me and shaped me. Molding me and shaping me into what you want me to be. Removing the dross, so that I may reflect you like pure silver reflects the image of the silver smith. Thank you for the challenges. Thank you for how you have stretched me. Thank you for the pain and the hardships. The pain and hardships have shown me just how much I need you and cannot live life without you. That the things and passions of this world cannot sustain me or fill me. Only you can fill that empty void inside of me. Lord, I thank you for the challenges and blessings that are to come. For the growth of old, and the birth of new relationships. For new opportunities to reach the lost. For events to unfold according to your good and perfect will. Lord, I thank you for your love. For your great, infinite, unfathomable love. For how you love me despite all the wrong that I do. For how you draw near to me, even when I push you away. For how you lift me up when I fall down. For how you have rescued this life from the pit. For dieing for me on that cruel, lonely, burdensome cross, even while I was still a sinner. For how I have been redeemed and purchased by the blood of your son. For how I can enter your glorious presence, white as snow, for you see Christ and not my sin. Lord, I am thankful that though this life is fleeting, though this life quickly fades, that there is more to life than this. That death is not the end of the adventure, but the beginning of a newer and greater one. A new life, in a new heaven, and a new earth, forever. Lord, I cannot possibly fathom what that day will look like, but I am confident that day will come. And I am confident that when I am finally in your arms, I will look up and see, that love has a face. Thank you Lord. Thank you.