A New Year and a Reality Check

Ringing in this New Year has really given me a lot to be thankful for. It seems I have been watching heartache and tragedy unfold for about a month now...not in my life, thank goodness, but all around. Is it that the world is getting smaller, or that I am just getting older and this is what we experience? Is there more sadness these days? I don't know, but it has a been a very sobering month. I've watched dear friends go through the most wonderful and heartbreaking experience of giving birth two three babies and losing one. I've spent nights praying for a family who almost lost their son after being attacked by a dog in their own yard. Tragedy struck someone I knew in college, killing her and her husband in a Christmas Eve car accident, only to leave their 8 month old daughter who survived, an orphan. And now, yesterday in Tucson. Watching Dateline tonight barely able to look at the pictures of that sweet little girl who was killed along with many others whose lives will be changed forever.

Through all of this, I am just counting my blessings. I'm trying to remember every day that the mundane, every day things I get worked up about really aren't that big of a deal. I'm trying to pinch myself and not just "go through the motions of my day." I'm trying to wake up and be in my life, celebrating every wonderful moment I have with my daughter and husband. I thank God that I don't have to search for answers, and that He is the only "New Year's Resolution" that I need.

Through all the praying and thinking on God's word, I have come to realize that He is merciful. All of the people I have known suffering, I believe, have been touched by prayer, and have come to rely on God's grace and love during these last few weeks. That in itself is a miracle, and so many more lives have been touched by their stories. Rest assured. He does have a plan, and knowing that, I can be at ease, enjoying my New Year.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

-Jeremiah 29:11