Five for Five

Ellen from The Everyday and the Unusual tagged me with this.

Normally I am not a fan of tags, but I am a fan of Ellen and this was a very thought provoking post. It kind of helped me review this past year. :-)

Things you have learned this year

1. Life is both more complicated, and much simpler, than I used to think.

2. God is good all the time...even when we feel crushed. He has a plan for everything and He knows what He's doing and how it will turn out. Acknowledging this totally changes everything.

3. Perseverance and patience seem to be the key to most everything...and I don't have them down very well.

4. Studying God's Word is an amazing gift and I have never valued it enough. I want to.

5. Nothing is ever hopeless... Because of Christ we can be wildly and ridiculously optimistic (and this is a big lesson for a natural-born cynical pessimist).

And this perfect hope does not mean we have to go around with a dorky smile on our faces (although sometimes that might be the only way to release our joy). There is still real sorrow, real tears, real suffering. But life is not hopeless. This story will have a good ending.

Things you want to accomplish next year

1. Be more bold and confident in Christ.

2. All the goals written in this post- Words for 2011 . Basically, read a lot, finish both book projects, and get published. Perhaps I'm being a bit to optimistic. ;-)

3. Journal better. I haven't decided what all this is going to entail yet, but it's still mulling about.

4. Read, memorize, and treasure God's Word.

5. Be more diligent in practicing music. Learn all of the awesome sheet music for Les Miz my sister got me! (Among many other things.:-)

Things you've always wanted to do but have never done before.

1. Finish a full length novel. :-)

2. Take a mission trip to a very poor country.

3. Learn a foreign language fluently (German would be first choice).

4. Memorize the Psalms.

5. Touch Michelangelo's Pieta.

Things you see as important in life

1. The triune God.

That might sound silly...but besides the fact that being a Christian changes every single aspect of every thing we do (or should), I have never really understood how extremely important it is that our God is a Triune God.

2. Honesty.

3. Faith, hope, and love. And these have a deeper, tougher, sometimes painful reality than we try to make them. They aren't just fuzzy bunnies. ;-)

4. My family. :-)

5. My Church.

Mishaps. Otherwise known as embarrassing (wonderful) moments that I get to laugh at.

1. Recently I walked past a crowded table at Chipotle carrying a bunch of food, tripped, spilled water everywhere, slipped in it, laughed hysterically, finally reached my table and began to feel mortified. (Part of the crowd that witnessed it happened to be a bunch of young males who had no qualms laughing loudly..if that makes you laugh more, Ellen...)

2. I sprained my ankle frolicking through the back hall and crashing into the wall.

Not stretched. Genuine sprain. And then when everyone asked with touching concern "what did you do?" I had to answer... "uh, crashed into a wall."

3. I once spent a whole meal discussing mysticism with a stranger, only to discover near the end of our conversation that he had just finished the manuscript for a book that argued the opposite view we'd been discussing, and that he was a pastor and college teacher on the subject...

4. Once I stood in the middle of a room where everyone was sitting down (which happened to be mostly best-selling Christian authors). An editor/agent/publisher was reading the beginning of my book and he pronounced loudly at the end that it "was not terrible". At the moment it made the happiest person alive.

5. In one of the multiple times I have employed crutches I fell down the stairs at church and nearly impaled myself. There was a long line of people watching behind me.

Bonus: I lept onto a horse bareback but overestimated...There was a huge prickly bush on the other side. Remember that Anna? I recall you thinking it was really funny. ;-)

I hope you are amused at my expense, Ellen. :-)

I tag the following-

Aisha of Coffee and Black Ink

Raquel of God's Daughter

The Director of Castles, Quills, and Cameras

Jordie of Crazy as Me

Bobbi Jo of Dragonflies & Kingfishers

Shay of She Drinks Coffee at Midnight

Anna Olivia of Ooooh la la!

Annie of Resting, resting

Beka of The Rose of Sharon

Please comment if you can with a link to your post. Thanks. :-)

Thanks for reading,

Miss Pickwickian