Happy New Year 2011!!!!

(Work in progress....)

Happy New Year 2011!!!

I sit here in GA welcoming in the new year of 2011!! What a whirlwind 2010 has been!! It has been filled with lots of laughs, many tears, testy trials, joyous triumphs, new friends, exciting adventures!! I am thrilled with everything God has done in my life this year alone! What a wonderful thing to watch Him work in my life and KNOW that GOD has taken care of me and never failed, not once!!

I think that this has been a year of learning, caring, serving, and growing. The end of April 2011 will be 2 years since my ex left me and my life started on a crazy roller coaster ride. I cannot believe it has been almost 2 years!!! There are times where it seems like it was just yesterday and other times where it seems as if it were a lifetime ago!  As you know there are many times where I wanted to give up, but thanks to God he never failed me and carried me through every single trial and tribulation I have faced. I can finally say that I am happy where I am in my life. I have an awesome job that does more than pay the bills, a very cute apartment that is all mine and paid for with my own hard-earned money, a wonderful church I call family, a great family who stands behind me, awesome friends who never fail to make me laugh and cry, and just amazed at how the floodgates have opened since my divorce was final.

Yes, I am happy again!! That is not to say that the memories of days gone by don't make me wistful! I was standing on a dock at a lakehouse in GA yesterday on a beautiful mild December day, and all the memories of being on Lake Hartwell were flooding and running through my head. I do miss my "Greenville" family and wish I could see them more often....(and they will always be considered family to me...just because there is one person I don't talk to and don't want anything to do with, doesn't mean the other relationships have to suffer. A lot of people don't understand that, and it's okay.). Sometimes I feel like I'm all alone but that feeling doesn't usually last very long!

This year has definitely been a year of changes. My divorce was final in July, I turned 25 in August, I also accepted a new job the end of August and moved to a very cute 1 bedroom apartment in October. November of course brought family and Thanksgiving, and December has brought more family, Christmas, & New Years. I have been thrilled to serve in various places alongside my church this year in Miracle League and helping needy families and our own people. I have watched my sisters and the younger children in my life grow up, and I was thrilled to be a part of a wedding that was incredibly amazing!! I have thanked God often that He allowed me to go through all the crap that I have in order to help & minister to others who have been in similar situations. I have also in 2 years lost 30lbs and dropped several sizes, which has been pretty awesome!! I have dated a couple guys and become good friends with a few others. I have run into old friends from high school and made new friends along the way.

(and that is all for now....more later!)

 I know I say this all the time, but I am incredibly thankful for Joey Leviner  & Amanda Leviner for leading Catalyst in what REAL church is supposed to be!! My life has been changed because of it!! I am continuously reminded at how blessed I am to be a part of a group of people who truly believe in Christ, who truly believe in going OUT and serving instead of waiting for people to come to the church. Over and over my life has been blessed and changed by the people of Catalyst who are my family; who are people that I share everyday life with, well, everyday. I cannot imagine my life without them and I can't believe we've only been a group for 2 years...it feels like its been forever! I wouldn't trade it for the world!!

On that note, I have to once again praise GOD for all that he has done ...he literally took me through the valley of the shadow of death and led me up the mountain-side to the top, to victory!! Praise God the battle is already ultimately won for me and praise God for the comfort, peace, grace, joy, and love he showers on us if we only cling to him and walk His path during those tough & troubled times!!

As I close out this New Year's post, I leave you with the passage of Scripture that has become a huge part of my life....

 Romans 8:28-39 (NIV)

  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. More Than Conquerors What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:   “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”   No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.