2015 has been a doozey.
According to Merriam-Webster, a "doozey" is something that is "unusually good, bad, big, severe, etc." and I feel like all of those words are fitting for this pervious year.
So many things have happened--good things, even some great things, mixed with some mundane and even sad things. Through all of these "happenings" I am thankful that The Lord's mercies are new EVERY morning and not only each year & that His grace is sufficient for people such as me.
Rather than sharing resolutions with you, I want to share some of the many, many blessings that The Lord stowed upon us in the last 365 days.
January:
March:
Amber & Evan's Wedding at the beginning of March
I helped host my first big wedding shower
Jason & I were a part of the Easter Cantata at church
April:
We celebrated this lady on her bachelorette trip to Orange Beach
I had my first experience doing true yard work!
Other than cutting the grass, I've never done much of anything yard related.
Cat, my Mom and myself took a full morning-afternoon to spruce up our yard and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was SUPER HARD and quite a bit of work, but those end results are so worth it.
May:
We celebrated God's goodness through Lakeland Presbyterian's 25th Anniversary!
This was such a fun day celebrating all the The Lord has done through LPC and how it's grown so much over the past 25 years.
It's so neat because we've been there for 20 years now so we've actually seen/been a part of the growth of this church--this is home, this is family for us.
This link will take you to a really neat video one of our church member's made for the celebration
Pastor's of the past & present
This year, on Mother's Day, Mrs. Emily went to be with Jesus.
This woman was something else. I am so thankful & blessed to have known her.
My sweet husband got Employee of the Month for the PPSD
Mary Claire graduated from Nursing School
We celebrated Blair on her bachelorette trip
June:
July:
Thanks to a few generous women in the church, I was able to start my new hobby, cross stitching
Jason's 2nd Annual Griswold Family Beach Trip
Celebrating my 26th Birthday
August:
I started my 4th year of teaching & Jason started his 5th.
I got braces, for the 2nd time.
We enjoyed a weekend in Memphis for the Moon River Festival--it was amazing!
September:
Mary Claire and I participated in The Walk to End Alzheimer's in memory/honor of our Dad's Mom, Innie.
Marked 3 years since Jason & I had our first date at this same restaurant
This sweet previous student of mine came to visit! Highlight of my school year.
October:
My handsome hubby celebrated his 37th birthday
3rd Annual BYOP & our first Halloween to actually be at our house. It was so fun having Trick-or-Treaters! Our neighborhood Trick-or-Treated on Friday night because the weather Saturday night was supposed to be terrible
We went to our first wedding held on Halloween Night
November:
We killed it with our Chewie & Darth costume for the Reformation Celebration at church
Jason & I celebrated our 2 year anniversary
(picture is from our honeymoon before we swam with dolphins)
We got this sweet little Mia girl.
The day after Thanksgiving we rode to Brookhaven and got our first dog!
A little toy poodle.
She has been a lot of work but so much fun.
She's becoming more and more enjoyable each day.
Not to mention, she's adorable.
That face!
Oh, and she loves herself a good something to chew on.
December:
We participated in our 2nd Christmas Cantata at the church
Christmas Eve Service at the church
As you can tell from all the pictures, we had a year!
I am looking forward to 2016 and all that it has to bring.
I'll end this post with Scotty Smith's prayer from his blog "Heavenward":
This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!” Jer. 9:23-24 (NLT)
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of a new year, and thank you for all the grace you lavished on us in the past year. There wasn’t a day you didn’t send new mercies and sufficient grace (even when we ignored them); and you steadfastly delighted in us, even when we delighted in anything else but you. Because of Jesus’ finished work, your love for us is irrepressible, immeasurable, and inexhaustible. It’s also the passion and power you use to make us like Jesus. We worship and adore you, for so great a salvation.
And now, in response to the words you spoke through Jeremiah, this is our prayer for the upcoming year. May it be a year filled with getting to know you better and better, and serving you more and more passionately. The lust for praise and power, riches and relationships, comfort and control will be unrelenting. But Father, we want intimacy with you to seize our hearts, schedules, and energy.
May knowing you—in renewed and fresh ways, compel us to love mercy, work for justice and walk humbly with you this year. May we dance and suffer, work and pray, serve and love, all to your glory. Pour out your Spirit in our churches, and give us an invigorated love for our particular church families, as messy as they may be.
May we live each day this year confident of your great love for us in Jesus, surrendered to your sovereign purposes and providences, and filled with longing and hope for the Day Jesus will return to finish making all things new.
So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.
According to Merriam-Webster, a "doozey" is something that is "unusually good, bad, big, severe, etc." and I feel like all of those words are fitting for this pervious year.
So many things have happened--good things, even some great things, mixed with some mundane and even sad things. Through all of these "happenings" I am thankful that The Lord's mercies are new EVERY morning and not only each year & that His grace is sufficient for people such as me.
Rather than sharing resolutions with you, I want to share some of the many, many blessings that The Lord stowed upon us in the last 365 days.
January:
What better way to start off the year than going on this girl's bachelorette trip to Nashville!
It was so fun ringing in the New Year with this group of friends.
March:
April:
Other than cutting the grass, I've never done much of anything yard related.
Cat, my Mom and myself took a full morning-afternoon to spruce up our yard and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It was SUPER HARD and quite a bit of work, but those end results are so worth it.
This was such a fun day celebrating all the The Lord has done through LPC and how it's grown so much over the past 25 years.
It's so neat because we've been there for 20 years now so we've actually seen/been a part of the growth of this church--this is home, this is family for us.
This woman was something else. I am so thankful & blessed to have known her.
Mary Claire graduated from Nursing School
This long time bestie of mine got married
June:
Our annual Ship Island trip to celebrate our Coco!
Aaron & Blair got married, finally ;)
On a fun side note, we went to a total of 13 weddings this year alone--and were even in some of those.
July:
August:
I got braces, for the 2nd time.
October:
We went to our first wedding held on Halloween Night
November:
(picture is from our honeymoon before we swam with dolphins)
The day after Thanksgiving we rode to Brookhaven and got our first dog!
A little toy poodle.
She's becoming more and more enjoyable each day.
December:
Our 3rd Griswold Family Christmas together & the first year to have every. single. person. there.
It was fabulous.
As you can tell from all the pictures, we had a year!
I am looking forward to 2016 and all that it has to bring.
I'll end this post with Scotty Smith's prayer from his blog "Heavenward":
This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!” Jer. 9:23-24 (NLT)
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of a new year, and thank you for all the grace you lavished on us in the past year. There wasn’t a day you didn’t send new mercies and sufficient grace (even when we ignored them); and you steadfastly delighted in us, even when we delighted in anything else but you. Because of Jesus’ finished work, your love for us is irrepressible, immeasurable, and inexhaustible. It’s also the passion and power you use to make us like Jesus. We worship and adore you, for so great a salvation.
And now, in response to the words you spoke through Jeremiah, this is our prayer for the upcoming year. May it be a year filled with getting to know you better and better, and serving you more and more passionately. The lust for praise and power, riches and relationships, comfort and control will be unrelenting. But Father, we want intimacy with you to seize our hearts, schedules, and energy.
May knowing you—in renewed and fresh ways, compel us to love mercy, work for justice and walk humbly with you this year. May we dance and suffer, work and pray, serve and love, all to your glory. Pour out your Spirit in our churches, and give us an invigorated love for our particular church families, as messy as they may be.
May we live each day this year confident of your great love for us in Jesus, surrendered to your sovereign purposes and providences, and filled with longing and hope for the Day Jesus will return to finish making all things new.
So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.
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