Friday, January 1, 2010

Looking back, and ahead



I

intended to post this last night, but we ended up playing some games and generally having fun, then today my computer totally shut down and I had to restore all of my files. sigh.

Thankfully, I use Acronis and MOZY, so between the two of them, I didn't loose much information at all. I have had to restore my computer enough times to be pretty careful with saving my info. In addition to years of homeschooling records, my photos and our checkbook, I have many other documents that are no fun to loose. Acronis is my favorite because it actually backs up an exact copy of your hard drive to an external hard drive. If you have to restore you simply use a boot disk and Acronis will totally restore to the most recent copy. The fabulous thing is that you don't need to reload each program and individually restore data for each program. Trust me, it's slick.

MOZY is an online backup which is great as an offsite backup. There were about 130 photos that I was able to find on MOZY and download to my computer that I would have lost if I were relying on Acronis only. (My last backup with Acronis had been almost 1 week ago.)

I spent some time last night going through the last year of photos and choosing some of my favorites....

Hang on.... here's a fast-forward trip through some of the highlights of our past year!































As I looked through photos from 2009 I was so encouraged to be reminded of God's faithfulness!

Have you taken time to look back over the past year to review you life? As I have taken more photos and really endeavored to document life here, I have been so encouraged. Please don't misunderstand; our life is decidedly not perfect. We all fail and have our faults, but as I look back, what I see as the overriding theme is God's faithfulness in the midst of our stumbling efforts to follow Him.

As I look back over the past year I like to evaluate both what went well and areas that I need to improve, both in my life personally and in our family's life.

This needn't be overwhelming or depressing. Dear Sister, I know how overwhelming life can be at times. Have you ever considered at your life as a story, as story that you are writing? Check out Donald Miller's blog post "Living a Good Story; an alternative to New Year's Resolutions."

Resolutions are great... I love to consider and pursue goals for the year, but perhaps if you are feeling overwhelmed by life right now, perhaps, just perhaps you would be encouraged to remember that "His yoke is easy and His burden light."

God hasn't changed. No matter what your circumstances right now... no matter what difficulties you face, no matter whether your problems are self-induced or not. God is still faithful. He is.

What do you want this next chapter of your life to look like? What exciting things is God calling you to be a part of this year? Tom and I have some very exciting chapters in our story just beginning to be written. I can hardly wait to share them with you here in the future.

Following God and being a part (even if it is a small part) of HisStory (history) is the thrill of a lifetime.

I'm looking forward to living it out joyfully this year!

susan





5 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos of 2009.

    Happy New Year to you and your family!!

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  2. Loved the recap as I have only "known" you for a few months it was nice to see the highlights!

    The thoughts you share with us today are wonderful...thanks for the proper perspective that God is faithful and in control...we are blessed.

    To quote my little girl..."Mummy...you are blessed...even if you don't feel like you are...you still are blessed...because of the Lord Jesus!" Out of the mouths of babes!

    Blessings,
    Camille

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  3. Love your pictures! You have such a lovely family- enjoy them!!

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  4. Thank you for reminding me of God's faithfulness in our lives. My cup overflows with thankfulness when I look back at this year! Someday soon I'll catch up with my blog. Thanks for sharing your life and testimony with us!

    Love,
    Susan

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  5. I've popped over from ??? gee I can't remember now :-) but I'm glad I found you. Very beautiful family~

    ~Cinnamon

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