My 2011

What a year 2011 has been for me.  How can even describe it?  There are just sot has happened me  may ways in which I can be thankful for in these past 12 months.

I didn't think that it would end up this well, but I know that I can be thankful for what I have been given.  

There are too many things that have happened to me this year that I can't even try to list them all, I just know that I have been blessed over this past year, and I have God to thank for that.

So 2011, thanks for a great year.  2012 you have much to live up to. :-) Until Next year!

Better than I used to be

New favorite song is by Tim McGraw - Better Than I used to be (YouTube Video). I think that it shows what true love really is.

Love isn't perfect.  You don't go into a relationship and never change, love makes you a better person. Love is something that makes you want to become a better person.  Sometimes it takes someone else to make you see that you can become that person.

True love isn't something that Hollywood can show you.  True love is something that is shown through the love that God has given all of us.  He shows us what true love really is.  It isn't something that demands something else from the other person.  True love is the opening up and loving that person unconditionally.

Humans are not perfect, sin is in the world and usually that is the road that sounds easier and more pleasing at the time.  But that pleasure is fleeting and it doesn't last.  If we open our hearts up to God and have him guide our paths, a truer and deeper love is in store.

Listen to God and he will guide you to true love, love that makes you better than you used to be :-)

when new feels old and old feels new

Sometimes you are reminded on how lucky you are in your own life.   There are those moments where something that is new feels like it has been around forever, but then there are also those moments where something old feels alive and fresh again.

What a great way to live, because I think that it makes you appreciate what you have more, and helps you realize all that you have been given in life.  If it a friendship that has come back around, when you didn't think it was there anymore.  Or if it is a relationship just beginning that feels as if it has been longer than what it really has been.

Keeping things fresh, like a bouquet of flowers.  By having the old feel new and the new feel old it is like you are replacing the dying flowers with new ones, and also adding to the arrangement.  So by the end of the day you are left with a fresh bouquet that smells beautiful.

So here's to keeping the bouquet of life fresh!

Looking at Forgiveness

Today I was reminded about a part of the Our Father.  At my church's penance service we said the Our Father together. There I was being forgiven of my sins, and a part from a retreat that I had attended recently and Fr. David Mary said a part of the Our Father that really hit home. he said: "...Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against..."

What is this saying someone might ask.  I think that sometimes we say this prayer and we just hear the first part: "forgive us our trespasses." and we don't listen out for the second half.  How can we ask for forgiveness when we don't forgive others or ourselves.

I am reminded about a part in a book I read about something like this. I wish I remembered the book that it was in because it was a really powerful little excerpt.  about 3ish years ago I was having trouble forgiving myself, but it was easy to forgive others who had done me wrong.  In this book it talked about reconciliation and forgiveness.  I knew that God had forgiven me, but somehow it was still in the back of my mind always.  But this book talked about how if we know that we have been forgiven, we need to get off of out pedestals that  we have placed ourselves upon.

God is all powerful, God is merciful, God is our Father who wants nothing better from us, then our very best.  He sets our bar high, but not too high that we will never be able to reach it.  If God is the master of the universe, and we know that he has forgiven us for our past sins; saying that we can't forgive ourselves is almost like saying that we are better than God and that we should hold ourselves to a better standard.  But that isn't the case, Jesus gave us Reconciliation to make us stronger.

The retreat I recently went to I was the leader of a small group, and one of the students in the small group said something great about reconciliation and forgiveness.  "In Reconciliation, our slates aren't just washed clean. In reconciliation our slates are made stronger so that next time it will be harder to make an imprint upon them."

Forgiveness is not easy, but forgiving ourselves, and others is the only way that we can wash our slates clean, so we can make them stronger.  The battle has already been won, we just have to choose what side we want to be on.

A Smile on my Face

Now that the semester is over I have come to realize how stressed these past few weeks have been. I thought that people were crazy, because they were acting as if I was stressed.  Ha, funny how I couldn't even see it.

But now that I am done, I realize how nice it is to have time, time that I can spend with my family and friends.  Get things done that I have been wanting to get done for some time.

So maybe what we are supposed to do, is always leave some time in the week for ourselves, and to de-stress our own lives, even if we think that we don't have time.  All could really take is 15 minutes or a half an hour to come back to reality and not have the simple things, such as school, control our lives and our happiness

The beginning of the end

Today starts the beginning of my Christmas break from school, but it is the end of an era a because this is my last Christmas break.  The way that things are going, I am planning on graduating in May.

But sometimes looking to the future is not the point, sometimes you have to take the time to enjoy the moments that you have been given at these present moments.  Now I am not saying that someone shouldn't look forward to the future, because then what else is hope?

I think though that we need to take the time to figure out what we what to do with the life right now that we have been given.  Sometimes we shouldn't just have dreams for the future.  Such as get a good job, or buy a house.  But we should find the things that make us get out of bed every day, we should find those hobbies, and activities that make us happy today, and not just the ones that will prepare us for our own future.

Now I am not saying that is a bad thing to do.  Let me put it into finance terminology. Diversification is when you need to take  an array of stocks to lower the unsystematic risk.  (Sorry just had a final about it today). So I think that you need a combination of having plans for both today and the future.

Hope for the future and live for the day - that is my theme for today :-)

The beginning of the End

In less then a week I will be one semester away from graduating! How exciting yes, but that just means that my future is coming just that much sooner.  But I just think that what I have to do it put my faith in God that he will provide and things will go the way that they are meant to be.

I shouldn't worry about the details of the future and I shouldn't really worry about the time line for it all, because either way I know that it will come what it is meant to come and not just when I think that it will come.

So that it my goal, to not worry about the future and to think about today being a gift

Let go and Let God

Sometimes in life, nothing seems to want to go your way.  With every turn you make, it feels as if each one was a bad choice, or you reacted to new the wrong way.  Sometimes maybe everything seems to go the wrong way, so we are each reminded that we aren't alone in our life journey. And sometimes we have to put our faith in that, because we don't know where we are going to end up, but God does.

So when you are having a bad day/week/month just remember that sometimes we need to let go of the paths that we think are right and let God guide us down the paths that we are meant to take