31 December 2015

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 

10 comments :

  1. THIS IS BEAUTIFUL, I needed diz. Also my sisters moving and getting married this year and we're really close. So, twins.

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    1. THANK YOU! I'm so glad. AND YES. Man, me and my sis are sooooo close. So it's hardddd. I feel ya, girl.

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  2. HAHA I love this post!! Have a great year and happy new year to you!! :)

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  3. aww, lovely post <3 2015 was a growing year, definitely. it must be exciting to have your sister getting married, but also sort of sad :) i can sort of relate to that because one of my very good friends got married a little while back and now she has a son, and it's just like, woah.

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    1. Thank you, Autumn! <3 Yesss a growing year. Both good and bad, but only bad when I'm selfish. XD Agh yeah! When Jess starts having kids it's going to be crazyness. But I'm going to be such a fabulous aunt. I can't wait. :-D

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  4. Happy New Year! Where do you find all your Flashpoint Gifs???

    I'm sorry I haven't commented in so long! I'm a terrible commenter!

    I feel the same way about growing up. It is really hard. I am almost eighteen and I feel ... weird. It's difficult to let go of memories. In fact I hate letting go of memories. It's good to make new ones but I think it is important to keep the old ones as well.

    You are and your Ninjago. Why do you love legos so much? its kind of weird. LOL.

    Have a lovely January. Happy 2016!

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    1. Uhhhhh. You know, I don't even know where I found them. I have them saved to my computer. So I whip them out at an opportune moment. XD

      No worries! It's hard to keep up with everything.

      Yeah. Man, being 18 is scary. And yeah--exactly. Letting go doesn't mean forgetting. It just means cherishing them in a new way instead of trying to relive them every day.

      NINJAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I am weird. Face it. XD

      You too!

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  5. UM LIKE YES I HAVE NO IDEA. This year seemed to squeak by uncommonly fast, didn't it? RIDICULOUS, I SAY. wait what?? WHAT IS THIS?? I did not see the animation on gmail waa. Um yus, growing up is very overrated. Or as one of my favorite characters ever once put it, "Growing up? What does that mean? How can we ever just grow up? That's just weird." xD

    "And no, letting go does not mean forgetting." YES SO THIS IS BEAUTIFUL... and I know what you mean. I think it's really easy to confuse letting go with forgetting. But really, you can let go of something without forgetting about it. Letting go just means that you're not going to let that thing negatively affect you anymore. Because after a while, the luggage gets heavy. And sometimes we need to just "drop the suitcase and run." Because we can. And God is for us. And everything is gonna be okay.

    EEEEEEP BOOKS TO CHECK OUT. they all look super yummy and books that make us cry are amazing. ♥ (usually. unless their sad. DON'T MAKE ME SAD, OKAY??) xD EEEE so we said we were gonna talk about the Star Wars movie! I haven't seen it (or literally any other Star Wars related thing in my life) so I was like, "should I watch it or am I going to be like a little watermelon slushie of total confusion??" xD IDEK. eeep and music! MOOSIC. I need to check those out, especially Sleeping At Last. I don't think I've ever heard anything by them before. meep.

    LOVE YA GIRL I'M TOTALLY GOING TO WRITE THAT EMAIL TODAY LIKE I'M JUST GONNA DO IT. LIKE NIKE SAYS.

    xoxo,
    abbiee

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    1. HEY NEW PICTURE. I LIKE IT.

      I think that every year goes by faster than the last one. Which is a frightening thought after last year.... O.O

      Yesssss. Amen. Especially about God being for us. And man, He is good. He is so, so, so good. :-)

      Island of the World is SAD. LIKE SO SAD. But so redemptive. But yeah, gotta warn you that some parts are just wretchedly sad and hurt like the dickens.

      YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING STAR WARS????? I guess we need to talk about this. XDDDD I'm not a total SW nerd, like some people, and in fact it was this new movie that really made me remember the stuff I love about the other movies. But yeah. XD Crazyness.

      HEY YEAHH LOVE YOU TOO! I look forward to the email. :-D

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