The end of the year is just around the corner.
Before I blink we will be entering 2015 and I will add another year to my life.
The end of the year is always a big deal to me, as I look back, while also looking forward.
This past year was just weird. The wonderful blessings of my three grandsons, and the constant sunshine brought to me by my youngest, kept the whole year moving forward. The joy from these four little guys is just priceless. Joshua wanting to come to "Grandmommy's house" and Benjamin telling me, "it is okay that we are lost, we hadn't seen this part of the city" just kept me peddling forward.
Peddling is where I finish up this year. I have to say...............I am peddling hard and going no where. I entered the year peddling up a very big mountain. There wasn't time to realize how high, nor time to even think about direction, just put your head down against the wind and peddle.
I felt I was making head way. The first six months of the year brought countless job opportunities. I could see the light at the end of the financial tunnel. I was also enjoying the weight I had lost and looked forward to losing more pounds. I was enjoying the peddling up the hill, because after you arrive at the top then you get to COAST DOWN the other side!! (yes I realize the means you are at the bottom again, but at least you got to see the view)
Summer came and I started to peddle harder. The type of peddling you do on a 10 speed bike, where you peddle and peddle and it spins and you go NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, I justified this going "no where" time, yet continued to peddle, as a season of summer time for refreshing.
I anticipated Fall peddling to help me gain more ground up the hill. I anticipated that the trail up the hill would give me clear vision for the future. I started to figure out ways to grow my business and invested in different areas to help get my name out.
Well you know what? I am not in control. Instead of making more advancement up the hill, for clearer vision and job growth, I did just the opposite. The ground I had conquered started to erode beneath my wheels as I started to slide back down the hill..............BACKWARDS!!! Backwards means you can't see what is happening nor are you able to prepare for the bumps.
The holiday seasons brought a pile of rocks in my path. Those that season bike riders (who are facing forward) don't hesitate to ride over, well they discombobulated me. In a sense, the more I tried to organize and schedule and plan and smooth the path, the more rocks were unearthed. This makes for a very bumpy ride.
Burned bread pudding at Thanksgiving Lunch
Pictures that were meant to be enlarged showing our whole family...shadows brought on by the sun couldn't be edited out and who knows when I will get all of us together again for remakes
Grandson's Christmas day with Grandmommy and Ben - sickness hit
Budget planned......budget killed
All that peddling didn't help me lose weight.............. I GAINED WEIGHT!!!! making all my winter clothes cry out - WE SURRENDER!!
So what does a peddling girl do when she sees she is at the bottom of the hill again? She can jump off the bike, throw it to the ground and run away on foot (which I did think about doing) or she can dust of the dirt, air her tires back up and mount the bike again.
I am mounting again. I don't know the terrain for this coming year....and to be honest, I am not even trying to guess. I am lifting my eyes to the mountain, in which my help comes from, the ruler of both heaven and earth.
Happy New Years to all. May we all have a good bike ride in 2015!
19 Joining in with more words:
Well, you're reflecting and you know who to give all the credit to, regardless of planned outcomes. I love your honesty! You're an enthusiastic and willing worker and I bet there are a lot of happy people in your wake, regardless of bottom lines. I wish you an amazingly beautiful 2015, dear one.
I think that in spite of what you think and that you think you went backwards, I think maybe more than not you were really going on up that hill. :) There are so many things going on in your life in 2015 that I am sure you will continue to add blessing upon blessing.
I think it is so good to see how far you have come. I can see it.
Have a lovely new week and a great new year to look forward to.
I'm WITH you, Janette! Forgetting what is behind.....I press on. (It's a familiar position for me.)
I know what you are talking about. This year was the year of JOY, my word for 2014. Well, it was the most difficult year of my life, starting with the death of my father in January. I arrive at the end of it, just plain bush tired.
I have jumped off the bike, and if I'm honest, I'm doing a bit of pouting. However, as I look back, I see that God was there, every step of the way, helping me over every bump in the road and every rock in my path.
I suppose that's the kernel of JOY - knowing Him, knowing He's there.
THAT piece of truth is what's going to enable me to get back on the bike, even though life looks pretty *uphill* right now!
So, friend, I'll peddle alongside you. And we will behold Him together...
GOD BLESS!
Awe, Jeanette, I'm predicting there are great things in store for you on your bike ride this coming new year. You have such a sweet spirit and I know God will honor your faithfulness to HIM. All the best my friend!
Janette,
It has indeed been one of the hardest years ever, but maybe one of the best. We had 2 deaths in our immediate family... one sudden and unexpected accident, and another very slow and over 5 months of daily visits... both Chickie and Mister lost their dads.
I took a second job, and Mister retired.
And God was there every minute, working behind the scenes.
Fulfilling His promise in Isaiah that He made us, He carries us, He sustains us and He rescues us.
You just wait sister!!! Get on that bike and just see what is ahead... there isn't a doubt in my mind that it will be good. The TIMING thing always seems to be "off", and we feel like it should have already happened... God is never rushed, and He is on that bike and leading you THROUGH and TO what He knows will be good and right for Janette! I am smiling in FULL understanding of all you have described, I think God is too! :)
Love you and praying for 2015 - for all of us - to be ready and willing to do whatever the journey involves. He didn't ever say it would ALWAYS be difficult and impossible, and God always has good things up his sleeve for us!
Love you!
Awww...you hit a nerve with me...your descriptions are so right on. Guess the lesson for me is "it's not Heaven yet."
I think most of us have made that same wild ride at one point or another...I know I have and way too many times to count. You'd think by now I'd have it down. But short of heaven I am not sure it ever really totally happens. But I do know this...we are NEVER on that journey by ourselves, He IS our rest, and we MUST press on. In the meantime lets peddle on together on this road of life, and while remembering all we have to be grateful for along the way as we press on to the ultimate prize. Wishing you the best of His riches in 2015! HUGS, Debbie
Keep peddling my friend! God has great things just up ahead.
It sounds like my year. Thanks for your honest post and I love your determination to go forward, trusting our heavenly Father who does all things very well.
Oh Jannette, this is so like life, throwing curve balls just as you're ready to swing. I guess it's where faith takes over. As one of the characters in my book sates, "Trust, even when you cannot see. If know how it's going to end, how is that trust?" But we WANT to know - if it is good things. Not so much the bad. Praying your New Year is filled with God's many blessings!
Keep peddling Janette, I seem to be the same kind of ride that you describe. I love your reference to Psalm 121....he will not let your foot slip...and he does not slumber or sleep. He is with us all the way up that mountain.(gravel, rocks and all) Blessings to you
Keep peddling Janette, I seem to be the same kind of ride that you describe. I love your reference to Psalm 121....he will not let your foot slip...and he does not slumber or sleep. He is with us all the way up that mountain.(gravel, rocks and all) Blessings to you
Pressing on... every day in so many ways! :)
Happy New Year dear blogging friend!
I understand about the ups and downs as ...I've been there too! But you are so right as your help comes from the Lord. He will guide and lead you in the way you should go. We need to listen and to obey. I know you're listening friend. Keep pedaling one leg at a time.
I too lost weight this summer and ...put it back on. However, I'm still under what I originally started with so I'm glad about that. But there's work to be done.
I am so glad that we can encourage one another. It can be too easy to give up and stop blogging when things are challenging. But your blogging sisters are here for you.
May 2015 be one of moving forward with Christ and one of giving and receiving encouragement from and to others. I know you've been such a help to me Janette.
Love you,
Debbie
It was a hard year of peddling... I hope 2015 is a wonderful year for you and yours, Janette. May we peddle and fly like wildfire. blessings ~ tanna
Dear friend, once I again I land here feeling understood n welcome to be who I am. That is just one of the many blessings you continued to share here. I send (((hugs))) and prayers for some flat ground for the next few weeks while you catch your breath.
It's kinda funny how well I can relate your backward bike story! For years I've had a recurring nightmare of driving my truck, losing engine n brakes and rolling backward down hill! My mother says this is a common dream when you feel you have too much responsibility and too little control. Truth be, that nightmare has been absent lately despite this being one of my worst seasons. *maybe* my prayers are working to ease my mind? I do know that The Lord has stepped in to carry me often and provided countless miracles to help me keep peddling… Wish I felt more worthy as a mother n wife. I've whined n complained (n even cursed n thrown things) as I struggled with my lack of control and hope for relief. God is so good tho! I am offered unending love n forgiveness! Now I just try day by day to make it to spring for new light n beginnings…
Praying you see the daylight hours increase and your joys grow and multiply!
xoxoxoxo
Leslie
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