Remembering 2013

I have had several blog topics cooking for about a month now, but I haven't really been in the blogging mood. I guess those topics will remain on the stove for awhile.

Well it's New Years Day. As I posted in a status, I have never really understood all the hype around New Years. It's a new year - so what? We get new weeks, new months, and yes - a new day every day. We can draw a line in the sand and start fresh any day we choose. So I just don't get in to the hype. However, I do enjoy a day off to rest before the busy month begins.

I do like to take the time to reflect back on the past year for just a minute. My reflection this year was different that in previous years. I usually remember all the details of just about everything. This time, I really couldn't recall all that happened in 2013. Furthermore, the two main things that I could remember were negative. I know I did not have a "bad year". In fact, 2012 was much much much worse than 2013. So it bothered me that the two things I remembered were negative. I remember 2013 as the year that I missed two All Worship Nights. The other thing I remember is my surgery that I had on July 30 - the surgery that left my lifelong dream forever unfulfilled.

So obviously, I didn't want to remember 2013 by these two things. Around the middle of December, I asked the Lord to help me to remember the year by something good. He exceeded my expectations once again - and in a subtle, small way that would seem inconsequential to most folks, but meant the world to me.

I got a Christmas card from a friend. Actually, I got many Christmas cards from several friends. But one was more than a Christmas card. It was three sentences coming from a friend that typically doesn't express herself with words. This card meant the world to me. I normally keep several of the Christmas cards I get - especially if they have pictures or personal messages in them. I keep them in a pretty box and each year when I got to put new ones in the box, I look through previous years. This card, isn't going in the box, it's going in my Bible. It's going in a place where I will see it regularly and allow it lift my spirits when I am down on myself. And... in the next year or so, when I think of 2013, I will think of it as "the year I got that card". I hope my friend knows how loved and appreciated she is.

In regard to ending a year and beginning another... this is my testimony for my past, my present, and my future:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning
Great is Thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23