Reflections on a Year Gone

                As I write this, I am thinking over the past year that God has blessed me with and am pondering the things he has given me and taken away. I lost one of my grandfathers at the beginning of the year and a friend of mine committed suicide earlier in the year. While the pain was substantial during and after these events, I am comforted in the fact that both of these people had accepted Jesus as their savior and that I will see them again when God decides to call me home. I would go into more stories about them, but I have already said my piece on this blog and would like to dwell on happier things tonight.
                God has blessed me very much this year. I have been doing well in graduate school and have passed the departmental requirements for most of my second year, there is one more thing to complete in April but the biggest hurdle was a literature seminar I gave in November. My family had a brief scare with my Dad getting an infection in his leg and deteriorating almost to the point that the doctors were considering amputation, but thankfully it did not come to that and he is healthy again. I have also been blessed to have been introduced to and to currently be dating a wonderful woman. She is a light in my life and I thank God for every day that we get to spend together. I am also grateful to God for the rest of family and am happy for the time I get to spend with them as well, even if we drive each other nuts. I actually came home for Christmas last week to find the majority of my family sick with the flu or worse and spent a couple of days with one of my brothers that wasn’t sick running errands and taking care of them. They have since healed and we have been hanging out for the majority of the remaining vacation I have. I am actually writing this while at my parents’ house after a day of hanging out with them. I am also grateful for all of my friends that I have in my life and I pray that they have had a wonderful Christmas/New Year vacation if I haven’t been in contact with you during this time.

                As I head into 2015 I look forward to continuing in graduate school and trying to grow in my walk with God. I definitely am not a perfect man, and I have a few bad habits to give to God so that I may fully enjoy what he has given me. Among them is a nasty habit of blowing things out of proportion in my head and worrying over little details that don’t matter. I would hope that I stick to this resolution to break at least this one habit I have decided to share with the world, and that those of you that know me will help me in this path to stop worrying. For anyone that visits this page, I want you to know that God loves you and that I hope to extend this same love to you and let you know the path to salvation is through the son, Jesus Christ. I pray that you have had a good Christmas, and I pray for all of us to have a blessed 2015.

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