Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! I can hardly believe that it is already 2007. Wow. I feel like just yesterday we were anticipating a new millenium (which technically started in 2001, by the way, not 2000). And now it's closer to 2010 then 2000!

This past year has been a real testing of my faith and one of the most life-changing years of my life. Most significant is spiritual change in my life; I have chronicled at-length God's mercy to me as He brought me from intense legalism to a grace-filled perspective. The end of this post contains links to many pertinent posts, or see my favorite post I've written on grace. As I summarized to a friend last night:

I entered 2006 resolved to forward my sanctification by my own strength, for my own glory. I leave 2006 praying for God to give me grace to grow more and more like Him that I might, even in my feebleness, proclaim His excellencies. Praise God for His mercies and grace! And praise Him that He gives sight to the blind, for my heart was so dark that I could not see my own legalism.

This past year has been eventful in many other ways as well. One of my closest friends since early childhood, Lydia True, was married in March, and I had the privilege of serving as her maid-of-honor. I even bought my first pair of high-heels for the occasion. I turned 22 in April. Yikes! In May I finished my first year teaching math at Heritage Classical Study Center and my first full year tutoring students from Mill Creek High School. June and July were a busy whirlwind of conferences (see posts here, here, here, here, here, and here), VBS, several out-of-state trips, and catering a wedding for my friend Ashley. Ashley, who I've known since 1st grade(!), married Paul in late July. This summer I had the privilege of clearing out my grandfather's library, and between June and July I brought home 17 boxes of books! In early August I was able to meet Jessie in person, after almost a year of e-mailing and blogging! Also in August, I started my second year teaching at Heritage. In addition I picked up two mornings of babysitting and co-coordination of my church's nursery, just to keep busy ;). In December I was named Time magazine's Person of the Year. Despite my instant launch into stardom, I remain living quietly with my family in Buford, GA, and I've tried not to let all that fame go to my head. My paternal grandfather turned 80 in December as well, meaning that I now have 4 living grandparents, all in their 80's. Wow! I'd love to see the percentile on that. My family made a short trip up to Indiana/Kentucky/Tennessee in late December, to celebrate Christmas with family and friends, and we enjoyed having Boy with us for almost 2 weeks! And. . . *drumroll please*. . . she said yes!!!!! *throws confetti*

I love cryptic messages :-D.

May God abundantly bless each of you as we enter a new year, and may we seek first His Kingdom! We do not know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow. Hmm, <<--that's pretty catchy; someone should turn it into a Southern Gospel song ;-).

Happy Birthday, Boy!

That's right. Brother Dear's birthday is today! This makes him 2 dozen years old :).

Twenty-four is a neat age for him, because it is 4 times his birth date (the 6th), it is 4 factorial (4x3x2x1), and also his birthdate times 24 equals the greatest integer of all time: 144! Yep, 6 x 24 = 144. And the fact that 6 is a perfect number makes it even more fun. Oh, oh, and the two digits of 24 (2 and 4) add up to his birthdate: 6. This is too fun. Oh, and I just thought of another one. His birthdate is 12/6 (December 6th), and both 12 and 6 are factors of 24. Hehe.

Brother Dear and I are only 16 months apart (minus one day), and consequently were sometimes mistaken for (obviously fraternal, I hope!) twins when we were young. We still have some similar features, most notably our ghostly pale complexions. . . And that hair color that seems to run in the family :). But really, I love Ben very, very much. He moved on Georgia Tech's campus when he was 17, so we haven't seen as much of him since :(, and now he lives in Seattle of all places!!! But we get to see him next week for two whole weeks! So that's happy.

Probably one of the things I most admire about Ben is his (sometimes painful) ability to speak plainly to me. He doesn't do it often, but usually when he does I remember it and take it to heart, even if I don't acknowledge it at the time. I specifically remember one instance in 4th grade that Boy has probably long-forgotten. I was, um, how shall I put this? . . *extremely* prideful as a child, though often well-hidden to most people. Brother Dear and I had Sunday School together when we were in 5th and 4th grades, respectively, and we had weekly memory verses and catechism questions. We were some of the few in the class who actually did our memory work every week, and I was rather proud of it, whereas Ben shyed away from mentioning his accomplishments. One time when I was proudly rattling off catechism questions or something of that sort (for no reason, at home, I believe), Ben just calmly looked at me and asked me why I did that so often, and then told me that it came across as boastful. I gave him this weird look and acted like he was imagining things, but believe me, it stuck with me! And I was definitely more conscious of my pride thereafter, though I continued to struggle with it!

Moral of the story: Honest brothers are wonderful, and people may heed your advice even when they don't appear to care :).

Happy Birthday, Ben!!!

Reformation Day

Last year I broached the topic of Halloween and Reformation Day, and we had quite a lively discussion on the subject. It was quite fun, in fact :). As most of you know (or can easily guess), I'm not a proponent of celebrating Halloween. But I've also questioned in retrospect if my tone last fall was genuine concern or self-righteousness - perhaps a combination? This year I'm trying a more positive approach to this day, and instead of explaining the reasons I hate Halloween, instead I'll just encourage everyone to take a bit of time today to remember the men who have come before us.

On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his infamous Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, thus sparking a flame of reform that would spread throughout Europe and alter Christendom forever. Our forefathers in the faith overcame unsurmountable odds over the centuries, especially in the time of the Protestant Reformation, to preserve and rediscover (not invent) the Gospel of Grace. We truly owe them a debt of gratitude as we stand on their shoulders. Their example and their writings still inspire us today as we seek to live life here on earth to God's glory.

I could attempt to write a stirring post on the Protestant Reformation, or I could glance at the clock, realize I still have planning to do, followed by tutoring, and then realize that it's not really a responsible option. So instead, I'll direct you to this retelling of Luther's Here I Stand speech. Ligioner has uploaded Max McClean's retelling to their site, in honor of Reformation Day. It's 26 minutes long, but worth every second of it.

HT: Tim Challies