Remaining Hopeful

"I don't know about you, but 2011 was a hard year for me." How often do we hear that from our own mouths, and from others as well? When the end of the year rolls around, I rarely see or hear people talking about how amazing their year was. Everyone focuses on what went wrong and what they didn't accomplish. When I think back on 2011, I can see a lot of things that were hard to swallow. I lost a friend to suicide, my sister got married (which in itself was amazing, but her absence from the house was difficult), I left home and moved 8,590 miles away, had some friendships that didn't go the way I had hoped, my grandmother passed away, I went through a lot of hard growing up, and had some other very tough personal trials.
BUT. I went on encounter this year and experienced God in a way that I never have before. Club 8:12 threw their first concert and saw many souls come to Christ. I finished school. I got closer to some great people. I was honored to serve in the Creative Arts Team. I went on several awesome outreaches. A few friends and I went to Lamu for a personally life changing week. My sister got married. My whole family was on one side of the ocean at the same time. I met my extended family at my grandmother's memorial. I'm blessed to be with my sister and her husband and my dear niece. I am starting college in a week. God has blessed me with a great group of on fire for Jesus people. He has been so faithful in the smallest things that I've needed.
I have so so so much to be thankful for this year. 2011 was hard... if I focus on the hardness. But on this January 1st, I choose to say, "That was an amazing year!" Because it was. I learned so much about God, myself, and others. Through my tears I saw the faithfulness of God, in my pain I found His forgiveness and love, in my worries I trusted His guidance. And look what the Lord has done! I stand on the brink of 2012, so excited to see where God is going to take me. I only have one resolution this year- to live like God wants me to. This year will probably be the most challenging, exciting, wonderful, conflicting year I've had yet. And I can't wait! God is the same in 2011, today, and forever. I start the year off with hope. Hope that if He did it last year, He will do it again. That's just how He is. Happy New Year :)