Pictures - The New Year - And Some Old Thoughts

Hello! I hope you're all recovering from all the holiday excitement! Here's a bunch of pictures from the last few weeks, and a few notes.

Of course, we got to go out and do some more ice hockey. Having grown up on skates, I've always loved our long winters with plenty of ice!

We visited some of my grandparents on Christmas day, and Grandpa pulled out his collection of woodworking things. He's been doing woodwork all my memory, and I always enjoy seeing his latest creations. This church is really cool, because from one side, it's a church, but if you turn it the other direction, it's a cross, as pictured below.

And we had our Christmas with all the nieces, nephews, and married siblings. One of my adorable nephews wanted to try on my hat so I caught a quick selfie with him.

And it's not a family Christmas without a good game of Balderdash! It's definitely one of our family favorites.

And I got in a walk through the snowy woods... Okay, so I didn't actually go out on my own free will . . . I was chaperoning my sister and her special friend. :) 

And the AWESOME Krahn family get together! I think there was over 60 of us that made it this year. It's always a lot of fun to catch up with cousins that I haven't seen in a while.

And our yearly Christmas Eve photos by the Christmas Tree.

I was in the choir again this year at the Christmas program. I know you can't see it in this picture, but at the front of the church is the manger, and on the wall, right behind it, is a large wooden cross. Every year, it makes me think about why Jesus came. I mean how amazing is it, that God, the Creator of the universe was born in a stable so that He could die on a cross for us? It's always sobering to me to think about it, and yet so exciting too! We serve an AWESOME God!!!

And with the New Year, people ask me about my resolutions. Well, I don't really have many to speak of, just goals, plans, dreams, hopes, etc.  However, this time of year, I find myself reflecting on my last year. I suppose it's my writer instinct that makes me want to assign a 'theme' to every chapter of my life . . . :)

A few years ago, I had a year where God taught me a lot about being thankful. Then I had a year where God taught me a lot about just giving everything to Him. The year of 2018 taught me a lot, but I feel like the main theme, was that it's not my life, and it's not about me.

You've all heard people say this, or maybe said it yourself . . . "It's my life!" Or maybe while discussing things with your parents or other authorities . . . "It's not their life to live." But the truth is, it's NOT our life to live. It's God's life. We are HIS workman. And our lives are for HIS glory, not our own.

Over the last year, multiple things have happened, where I had my own plans, and they didn't go as I wanted. Things happened that I didn't choose. And there were days when I got upset. Days when I wanted to live MY life. But then, God reminded me that it's not about me, it's about HIM. It's not my life I'm living, it's His. And when I stopped looking at my life as my own, things changed. The Bible says that we are not our own, and it's true. If you belong to Christ, then I encourage you, in this new year, to stop looking at life as if it belonged to you. Stop making decisions based off of how YOU want to live your life, and instead, make decisions knowing that you're making a decision that will affect HIS body. Your goals, your paths, your dreams, should be replaced with His goals, His paths, and His dreams for your life. Often, they will be the same. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us desires, and our will becomes one with His. Other times, following His path may seem impossible, like you're throwing away everything you wanted from life, and that's okay. We're to die to self daily, and if we have to die to self in order for Christ to shine through, then let's die to self. And let Christ shine through in 2019!