2016? Tomorrow?

Can someone tell me where the year went?

Yeah, I thought not.

2015 is about 5 hours and 45 minutes away from being gone. LIKE THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER ONE. Whuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut????? 

So yeah. Happy New Year! Did you notice when you chat that to somebody on Gmail it does a weird animation thing? Crazy. 

2015 was kind of a crazy year for me. I feel like everything changed in one year. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. :-P I turned 18, graduated, my sister moved out and then got engaged... yeah. It's been rough, lots of days. Emotionally, I mean. Growing up is hard. And I don't say that in a whiny, "Where is my Neverland?" sort of way. I say it in the most realistic way possible. 

But at the end of the day (or the year, as the case may be), it's all just growing pains. We go through this pain, not in despair or fear, but in deep-seated hope that will never be destroyed. We grow, knowing that we are moving Further Up and Further In. Our God is shaping us, molding us, and we are growing closer and closer to being perfected in His image. This is good, guys. 

One thing that God has been impressing on my heart lately is, Make new memories. It's hard to explain the full significance of this, but I am the type of person that grips onto old memories with a death-hold, only letting them go if they are brutally wrestled from me. And that makes me start to believe that I will never again experience something that good again. But I need to let go. And no, letting go does not mean forgetting. But it does mean loosening my grip. It means turning my face toward the rising sun and taking a step, and then another. 

Make new memories. And there are tons to make. How do I know? Because my God is a good God. And He gives good gifts. And there is plenty to go around. Because there is enough of Him to go around, to reach to every single day of my life, however long or short it may be. And I have no good apart from Him. And if every day is filled with more and more of Him, then I know that I will be making loads of new memories. Good ones. The best ones. 

So farewell 2015. Hello 2016. It's going to be a good one.

Now...let's do a quick Best Of 2015. Because no End of Year Post is complete without it. Basically, it's just my favorite things that either came out or I discovered in 2015. Enjoy. :-)

~BOOKS~ 

Far and away, my favorite book that I read this year was Island of the World by Michael D. O'Brien. I wept. It was so beautifully told, so emotional and so impactful. And so beautiful. Did I mention it's beautiful? Go read it. It's worth every 800 or so pages. 

Honorable mentions, though:

Hind's Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard. So simple, so relatable, and so convicting.

Sacred Singleness by Leslie Ludy. Wow. I needed this book so badly. It truly changed my perspective on a lot of things and shifted my focus--which needed shifting so badly. 

~MOVIES~

Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes the gold for movies this year. And funny enough, I wasn't even going to go see it (I guess I had a bad feeling about it). But I was persuaded (thank you, Addy and Dally!), and boy am I glad I was. This movie stayed so true to the heart of the Original Star Wars, while also creating some new, fresh, believable, and seriously relatable characters. I adored both Rey and Finn as characters and look forward to seeing them more! And while the plot wasn't terribly original (it is very similar to A New Hope), I didn't mind because of how cleverly the new (and old) characters were introduced. The characters really held up any problems of the plot. Anyway. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The Peanuts Movie was also really good. I laughed. So hard. It was just so fun and so well done and just felt like the comics. 

Also, Ninjago. I realize it's a TV show but it is the best TV show hands down. Like. What even. Why do I get so emotional over a Lego TV show????? So good. 

~MUSIC~

The Burning Edge of Dawn by Andrew Peterson. Like, no person should be able to write an album that good. Except they should because then I can listen to it. I could listen to this album on repeat. Seriously. I definitely think it's AP's best, which is saying something, because ALL of his albums have been incredible.

Home by Josh Garrels. There aren't really any words to describe Josh Garrels. And this album was much needed this year. I love the sound. It's the perfect driving album, for me. 

Atlas: Year One by Sleeping At Last. This is a band I discovered this year and totally fell in love with. The lyrics are simply INCREDIBLE. And the concept of doing an album the way that SAL does....yeah. Just listen to it. It's amazing. Definitely an amazing find. And I can't wait to hear what he comes up with for Year Two. 

Alright, that's all for 2015! See you next year! :-D