This year has been a year of miracles. Big miracles and little miracles. My faith has been tried, tested, and blown away by the faithfulness and grace of God. He has taught me that He cares about the little things and big things, most importantly that He cares about the condition and the longings of my heart. This time last year, I didn't know that I was pregnant with a miracle baby. I didn't know that I would be so sick the doctors would say I needed a miracle if I was going to survive. I didn't know that in the midst of all of that, my family would struggle financially, or that my daughter would face unexpected challenges developmentally. I didn't know that my husband was going to end up working full time and doing school full-time in addition. I didn't know that my faith was going to be tested in ways I couldn't have imagined. That was the year that followed despite my wildest dreams.
While this year has not been easy, (not that any year in my life ever has been) it has been filled with joyful moments, peace, and the grace of God. My miracle baby is an overflow of joy in the midst of health issues, my Charlie girl is discovering the world around her continuously and I have the blessed joy of staying home with her watching her grow and teaching her. My husband and I grow closer and more intimately interwound in each other's hearts and lives; becoming more and more as one through Christ and less like two trying to fit into each other's worlds.
God has filled our lives with deep friendships, a church family, and visions for our future. We have experienced love on a whole new spectrum and thrived through relationships we didn't know where possible. My babies Godmother moved back home this year and has blessed us and our family so much with her devotion and servants heart, I've made friends with new mom's, young families at church and people from my past. God has also brought biblical mentors into my life which is something I've longed for through the past years. This year was hard but God didn't let me face it alone. He surrounded my family and my heart with people who would be an outpouring of the love of Christ.
Spiritually, finding peace in the midst of the chaos of this past year was easily the most challenging part of the year. I love how Adam Houge phrased it in his book 'With Jesus in the Quietness', "To portray a peaceful heart in the midst of distress is an expression of profound faith." This is everything I strive for in my day to day living. Only through the Holy Spirit and complete surrender is it possible. Through every distress to have faith in the power and sovereignty of God there is room for peace. I am far from mastering faith, but my faith is constantly growing and strengthening in God.
This next year my prayer is that my faith will increase and that peace would fill my days regardless of what I may face in the coming weeks and months. It is also for you, that God would increase your faith and that you would experience His outpouring of love, grace, and mercy in your life whatever may await you in the coming days.
