Happy New Year

I guess you all expected a single girl in her late 20's to have big plans tonight......Well, I did but probably not the kind of big plans that you were thinking of. I am here at home with the family ringing in the New Year to a great big plate of chips and dips and some football. Yes, that's what I'm calling fun at this point. As I sit here tonight I have realized a few things.....First, of all this is my first "New Year's Eve" at home since I was too young to get plans together on my on. I usually spend this night with dear friends or the "significant other" that I'm with at the time making BIG, I mean, BIG plans for the coming year. I usually spend this night saying all the great things I am going to accomplish and the plans that I want to fulfill in the coming months. However, as I look back almost none of my plans have ever come to fruition. I never set really realistic goals for myself, or goals that I could really prayerfully do anything about. So, this year as I have looked back and began to think about 2009. I'm taking a little different perspective. I'm not going to plan on the diet I'm going on, or the man I'm going to marry, or even the next degree I might try to achieve. This year I'm going to stop and reflect for a moment on all that I've learned this year. The one thing that I have learned over and over in recent years is that "I'm not in control!" I wouldn't have chosen some things in my life to have turned out the way they have, but then again that's what I know! All that has been going through my mind in recent days is ...."when Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, and said ""Thus far has the lord helped us!""....Now I'm not a biblical scholar, hey I may be taking the verse way out of context for all I know, but to me right now I feel like it's almost as if my Jesus is saying "Ashley, baby I've always taken care of you, and I'm not going to abandon you now!" In a strange kind of way that gives me peace, so instead of writing out a list of New Year's resolutions or telling anyone of you readers out there what all I'm going to do this year I've decided on two things. I am going to work really hard to remember my Ebenezer stone 1 Samuel 7:12 because "thus far had the Lord help me.", and I am going to try to read the bible through in 2009. I guess this doesn't measure up to all the BIG plans I've had in the past, but that sure seems like enough from where I sit. I'll let the other plans be revealed to me along the way! Enjoy the Journey, ~Ashley~ Here is 2008 in review

Make a Smilebox scrapbook And Happy 21st Birthday Christopher!