Life that's new

I really don't like posting now that my blog is private--I can reach so fewer people, and it's a hassle commenting on blogs that don't have access to mine. Anyways. :)

I'm really excited for 2011. This year, which will end in one hour (one hour! eep!) has been a good one. It's had its ups and downs. My grandfather passed away three days before Christmas. I won Nanowrimo. Grandpa was in and out of the hospital numerous times. There were trials, big ones, for my personal walk with Jesus. I could almost feel Satan shooting his fiery darts at me. It hurt. A lot. But Jesus, being the good Savior that he is, helped me get through it--and learn from it. I can't say it was enjoyable (I mean, come on; when is it ever?) but I think I'm stronger because of it.

I made friends this year. Two girls who have become two of my best friends, and I hope they'll truly be my friends forever. I met Katelyn in March in a writing class, and we got to know each other after a few months. Sadly, she spent the entire summer (grr!) in New Jersey, but she came home (yay!) and we've become really strong friends. Hey, we're both writers and photographers and bloggers and Christians and homeschoolers. How much more alike can you get? (Ok, we don't look anything alike. At all. But that's alright.) God has blessed me so much, and I am so thankful for a wonderful Christian friend like her. Love you, girlie!


Then, in April, from this lovely little website we call Blogger, I met Shaynie. I was just blog hopping and happened to find her blog (I have no idea where I found it) and man, am I glad I did. We always got along well, but towards the beginning of fall we started chatting/emailing with each other, and we started to become really good friends. Shaynie completed Nanowrimo like a week and a half before it ended. I, on the other hand, was struggling with a word count that was pretty behind. But this girl pulled me through. She wrote me an incredible pep talk and I pulled through and won that horribly painful writing contest (note to self: don't do Nanowrimo next year...possibly...). I didn't want to dissapoint Shaynie, so I had to kick Nano's butt. Now, two months later, we're close friends, and definitely friends for life. :)

And then there's Miss Molly. I can't say she's one of the best friends I met in 2010, since I met her in 2009. But then, last New Year's, I didn't know Molly nearly as well as I do now. I am so thankful for this friend. We may be as different as day and night, but we're Peanut Butter and Jelly, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, Spongebob and Patrick, Shawn and Gus. (I had to fit all the best friends I could think of.XD) We really are sisters, buddies, amigas, and Robin Hood and Merlin fanatics forever.:)

photo credit to Pixel Paige

I am thankful for my life. My friends. You incredible on Blogger, cause you make my day. My family, because that's what keeps us together. My grandfather's life. And I'm thankful for new life, and how Jesus can turn an old year into a new one full of hopes and promises and any amount of dreams that can come true. That may sound really cliche, but as Molly once told me, sometimes the cliche phrases are really the most true. Anything can happen, because this is life, and when you put in God's hands, you're in for a wild ride. One that will take you to places you never expected.

I want to write this year. I want to push myself to my limits and make the volleyball gold league. I want to save my money for a camera, I want to eat healthier, I want to run, I want to draw, I want to cook.

But what I really want is Jesus. I fool myself into thinking I need the above things (Ok...you really do need your health XD) but when it comes down to it, what's left? Is it the camera or the volleyball or the sketches? Nuh-uh. It's Jesus, and it all comes down to him. So give him the glory, because in the end, it's his anyways.

{MY picture, but I didn't put a watermark on it, so don't steal}

I wanted to share this verse that was a huge comfort to me during my struggle:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." --Ephesians 6:12 (and typed from memory, too ^_^)

Satan doesn't want us to live. He wants to weigh us down with how life can be hard sometimes. And while it can be, that's not the point. Because Jesus came to give life, and he certainly did give it. So it's the least we can do to honor him by living it.

It felt good to write this, even if no one else sees it until tomorrow or the next day. I need to get my thoughts out. :)

So thank you, Jesus, for Molly, for Katelyn, and for Shaynie. Thank you for Lorna and Olivia and Julianna and Alyssa and Christina and Stephanie and Guin and all the people you've blessed me with. Thank you for my family. For my best friend/sister (no, really, she is my sister) Paige. For my parents, my grandma, my nana on the other side. For life, writing, volleyball, water, music, health, laughter, swimming, jumping, hyperness, and everything else I love.

Bring in 2011. Bring in new beginnings, new stories, new laughter, quiet days, and a chance to begin again. Let yourself really live. I know I want to!

favorite photo taken of me in 2010...thanks Livia!