18 inches

So 2015 is see ya later, alligator.

Are you freaking kidding me?  Where does time go?  Deaton is going to be 8 months old soon.  How is that even possible??

 

I remember Memaw telling me, when I was a kid griping about how slow the school weeks went, "Just you wait, Laurie, when you're my age, you won't even be able to keep up with weeks, they fly by so fast".  (Insert teenage eye roll here, and the exasperated "Oh, Memaw!")  

Now I believe it.  

At church, we have heard so many wonderful things over the last month, and I find time rolling so fast, I don't have time to sit and reflect and put into words, my heart.  

That's sad.  

So my word for 2016, is going to be ..... REFLECTION.  

serious thought or consideration.

"she doesn't get much time for reflection"

synonyms:

thought, thinking, consideration, contemplation, deliberation, pondering, meditation, musing, rumination; "after some reflection, he turned it down"

• an idea about something, especially one that is written down or expressed.

  
  

  "reflections on human destiny and art"

  
  

  synonyms:

  opinion, thought, view, belief, feeling, idea, impression, conclusion, assessment; More comment, observation, remark "write down your reflections"

Even the dictionary online tells me to "WRITE DOWN YOUR REFLECTIONS"

SOOOOOOOOOOOO,

let's see how that goes.  

Hallie wants to do the Daniel Fast this month.  I asked her, "Have you met me? You expect me to give up sweet tea??  The Lord KNOWS I need this".  (Insert teenage eye rolling here)

We are going to give it a whirl.  Again.  No one is cranky about it but me.  Trying to figure out meals that everyone will eat, and make sure Hallie gets enough protein for her volleyball training (without meat, mind you, or ANY KIND OF VEGETABLE, because CORN is king in her world) is enough to make my eye twitch just thinking about it.  

We are coming up on Laynie's birthday on the 16th of January.  Hard to believe that it's been 8 years.  AGAIN with the TIME FLYING.  

At church we were talking about when God doesn't make sense. I felt her story resonate as we walked through that series.  In fact, I feel her story resonate in every series.  

It's our story.  The one that God hand picked for us.  Sometimes you can trace your purpose back to your largest pain, and it redirects your life.  When people are so quick to blame God and wonder why He would EVER put us through this.....stop for a minute, and please listen to these words I am telling you, He lets you experience pain so that you learn to lean on HIM and give it to God.  Prayer isn't always about the asking...it's about the believing.   In all the storm of losing Laynie, I felt more peace in my life, because of all the thousands of prayers sent to heaven on our behalf and all our friends standing in the gap for us.   Delight in the pain, people, because you learn to lean 100% on God.  You experience Him in a way only you could through this pain.  It's the THORN we'd NEVER choose.  I would never choose to go through what we did with Laynie again, but I am here to tell you, I would NEVER change a thing about that time.  I saw faithfulness and the goodness of God in everything.  The goodness of God is more real than the pain that you are going through.  

I know all of this hard for some of you to understand.  But I don't want you to miss heaven by 18 inches.  I don't want you to only have a head knowledge of God, and not a real relationship in your heart with him. Put God in your heart, and seek him in 2016, search for him harder than you creep on your friends on facebook.  Make HIS will for your life, top priority this year.  

Have a heart relationship with God.  Open up that bible and really get to know Him.  He's just waiting on you.  

Don't miss heaven by 18 inches, friends.