Wow, this time last year I was considering starting up this blog, I'm really glad I did! I have blogger friends from different countries who have the same interests as I do, which is super cool and I never would have 'met' them otherwise. :)
I've been pondering the past year in my mind for the last couple days and I wanted to write a post about what God's done and what I've learnt from Him over the past year. This may be incredibly long and possibly vague because I don't share every personal detail of my life with the world wide web.
Here it goes:
This year God's answered some of the smallest of prayers, even though I thought it was silly to pray about something that wasn't a big deal, occasionally I did and God came through on it! Which is really cool and always resulted in me doing a little 'happy dance' that I tend to do when I realize a prayer is answered. Yes it looks kind of silly but I don't care one bit! Praise God!
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
~ Matthew 28:19
I love this verse, it's quite popular and I've been thinking about it a lot but I think it's sometimes taken too far in context... When Jesus said to go and make disciples of all nations most people tend to think, oh I have to go to a foreign country on a mission's trip, that is the obvious thought and it's great that people do go to other countries and share Jesus with people who have never heard it, But to GO as commanded could also mean to go across the street and invite your neighbour to church, or to casually mention something that God's been showing you to a friend- even if they don't really respond because it's 'awkward' for both parties, So God's really been showing me that I don't have to go to to another country, I'll go where I'm called and right now I think that's right here.
The second part of that verse reminds me of what I haven't yet shared with fellow bloggers...
I got baptized on December 9th! It was really great!!! And there's another answered prayer within the days leading up to it...
I had the slightly terrifying task of telling the rest of my family I was getting baptized about a week before it happened. As I was telling my parents... my dad kind of over reacted and freaked out about me being 'lured' into 'organized religion' as he puts it, even thought it was completely my decision. And of course I was upset that he didn't support me, not that I had expected him to.
I went for a walk to calm down and I was praying about it, that he wouldn't over react and he'd let me make my own decisions (being the mature, responsible 18 year old I am). I kept on walking feeling a bit better and a little more calm... and it had literally been 2 minutes since I had been praying about my dad when he called me on my cell phone and apologized for over reacting! Again, my little 'happy dance' came out, I was so shocked and so happy that God just changed his heart all of a sudden I almost cried tears of joy! :')
So a week later I was standing in a tank full of nice *warm* water with my pastor, my dad showed towards the end of the service to see it and I was baptized! As I was standing in the tank I was thinking about how far God's brought me in the last two years and when I was being dunked I was just thinking 'whoa, this is so cool'!
It was a really nice day, surrounded by friends (one who came from university and had an exam the next day) and family (which was mostly unexpected) and surprisingly my family has been better about my faith in general since. My mom came to a Christmas eve service with me and my dad started asking me the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament while we were driving around Christmas shopping! I think it's so cool that they're asking questions - I mean, that's what I did to get to where I am today, I asked my friend questions about God and the bible and stuff I didn't understand, these things I'm only just beginning to understand but God's still using me somehow! Woo hoo!
The major thing I've learned this year though was about love and family. I wrote a post about loving people in August (Love like What?, if you care to look it up) but basically in summary I've been learning to love people selflessly, like Jesus loved us, so God's been teaching me how to love (which makes sense, because He is love! hehe)
I've also learned a lot about family this year.
I struggle with the question of whether I actually want a family and children of my own someday, yes it's a little early to think about this kind of thing but when ever I see broken families and fighting and hatred within families it just makes me want to give up and never have a family of my own... because what if it turns out like that?
But being part of God's family really changes things up, I see encouragement and all the good things about family even in troubled times. This year I was 'adopted' into a friend's family and well... they really are like family to me, they mean a lot and I get to what a close God loving family is like, something that I'd never experienced before and it means more than I can say. =D
I've been learning how to come before God with anything, it's tough, because well sometimes I don't want to feel convicted and guilty, or it's sometimes easier to turn to people, but I've been trying to rely on God in more areas of my life and it's really neat how He cares about the smaller stuff when you actually just go and bring it to Him, remember how I mentioned answers to the smallest of prayers, stuff like that, I've found that God is really sweet and does care about minor details, which I'd heard people say before but never really understood.
Lastly, I've been trying to get into a habit of spending way more time getting to know God, I can hear other people list off His character traits until the cows come home but it doesn't usually mean much if I don't experience it myself (like mentioned above), so my new year's resolution is to spend more time reading through bible and making more notes about God's character and seeing it through answered prayers, other people and the things He created, So I want to share what I'm learning with this in the new year, I'm reading through Luke right now and taking notes so perhaps I'll post some of what I've been learning.
Anyway, long enough post???
Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year! :)
