A Good Year

Why is it that we always gauge a year of progress or a year of distress from the beginning of January to the completion of December? I know the obvious answer: because it's a calendar year. However, does it have to be that way? I want to break the mold, though, and I give each of you permission to do the same. I'm going to reflect on the previous year beginning one year ago today. Here's a list of major (and not so major) events that have happened in my life in the past 365 days:

1. My beautiful son, Jackson, was born
2. My beautiful son, Jackson, was kept in NICU for nine long days while his lungs matured
3. My family and I sold our first house and made a nice little profit off the sale
4. My family and I bought a house with one-and-a-half times the square footage and one-and-a-half times the mortgage as well
5. I (with some help from the father-in-law) knocked out a wall in the new house
6. My marriage went through a trying time with all the changes in life that had recently occured
7. Amanda and I realized that after God, we should be each other's number one priority
8. I sold my Xterra and bought a gently used, fuel-efficient Jetta
9. I caused my first (and hopefully last) automobile accident
10. I gained a couple of very close friends
11. I drove through my first blizzard
12. I realized that life is much more enjoyable when you behave nicely instead of expecting others to behave nicely
13. I saw a movie that to this day still makes me laugh when thinking about it
14. I read a book that almost made me cry
15. My sister, brother-in-law, and niece moved to town
16. I pruned a rose bush
17. I heard God clearly

I've thought before that I wish I could visit with myself who is a year ahead in life to find out what's to come and how I can prepare for it. I've abandoned that desire, though, because I don't think that's living at all. Character is developed within each of us when we face every circumstance in life that comes our way, great and devastating. I find that life is incredibly fulfilling when I know to expect something great from God and I live my life in that sweet anticipation. My problem is that I want that greatness to happen within a week. Shame on me. My definition of great is often obscured, and therefore, when I'm caught up looking for something amazing to happen, I often times miss the great things that are actually happening around me, like learning to prune a rose bush and hearing Addison go to the potty.

Therefore, I'm incredibly grateful for each event in my list up above. Furthermore, I'm also grateful that I didn't have access to this list one year ago today. As I reflect on the list, I see that each of the events had to happen in God's time, and if I knew when they were going to happen, it wouldn't have fully been His time. So I'll pass on looking at this next year's list. You should too.