Reviewing this Past Year...

Some people may think that this is too early for a "Year in Review" post, but I have a good reason: it's my birthday today.

Have I matured in that year?  Have I learned anything?  Was it a successful year?

As this day quickly approached, I began thinking about these questions and the answers to them.

First of all, I learned not to judge other people.  When I say this, I don't mean looking the other way when someone is blatantly sinning.  I used to look at the way others dressed and think, "Okay, they're not like-minded."  But now I know that that is totally wrong.  God doesn't even look at what we look like on the outside!  Some of my dearest friends wear head-coverings, but I don't.  Others wear jeans on occasion, but I don't ever.  Does that make us less in love with Christ?  Certainly not!  Does it hinder us from being friends in Him?  Of course not.  In a sense, we agree to disagree on these controversial subjects.  I know that the Lord has called them a different way in life, and He has called me a different way in life.  If it were not so, I think we would be communistic.

Another great lesson I learned this year, is not to worry so much about what other people think about me.  This was learned in a very hard manner... one in which I would not have hoped for, but one that I am grateful for because it devastated me to the extent that I think I learned this lesson well.  At a time in my life when I was all worried about what I looked like and if what I said was okay or if I stepped on someone's toes by doing that, etc., God used a little girl's drowning to death to shake me and say, "Guess what?  YOU aren't the most important person on earth!"

Then I learned how to keep my mouth shut when things got heated between my sister and I.  No, I'm not perfect, but I have learned through many times of walking hard into a brick wall, that it's just not worth it to say something sarcastic or brash.  Instead, I would be heaping "coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee."*  (And, no, I really don't want to cause any physical harm to anybody, but, in the heat of the moment, I sure would...)

Last, but definitely not least, I learned to get a move on in my unmarried years.  This is something that God has especially made very clear to me through numerous sources, but specifically through Preparing to Be A Help Meet by Debi Pearl.  Sure, I wanted to get out and do something for my Lord, but what?  I couldn't just waltz into some Christian ministry and announce that I was going to start volunteering for them.  I prayed, I cried, and I prayed some more - a lot more.  It was in the heat of the Summer that the Lord put our local pregnancy care center on my heart, as well as my sisters' hearts.  We made a phone call and began volunteering 3-4 hours once a week.  Pretty soon, I heard about their upcoming training session for women who were interested in counseling young girls about their options in a crisis pregnancy situation.  It sounded like a wonderful thing to do, but I just didn't see how I could go through with it.  I was looking at three options: earn money, go to India for long-term, or nursing school.  How in the world would I fit in this counselor training?  And besides that, I did not have the $30 application fee.  Nevertheless, through some friends, the Lord urged me to go along with it.  I had seen Him provide countless times before, maybe He would do so again - if He really wanted me to be a counselor.  As sure as His mercy is endless, just before the first session, the lady conducting the training told me that they had one last scholarship left that could be used for my fee.  Isn't God so faithful?  I think I really know the meaning of that now.

As of now, in between volunteering as a counselor and managing our family band, I will be training to be a Certified Nurse's Aid which will be a source of income and a stretching of my comfort zone.  If the Lord is with me, who can be against me?  I will continue following wherever He leads... it sounds so easy, can I just keep on following Him and forget about what I want?

*Proverbs 25:22