When I was younger, a year seemed to take forever, but the older I get, the faster each orbit around the sun seems to go. This year seemed to wiz by for me; I'm still remembering the beginning of  2015; I was a high-schooler. Now I'm a college student.
 
   A year ago, I was frantically scrambling to get my application in, for dual enrollment and trying to figure out exactly what getting a degree through Verity would look like. Now I'm getting that degree.

 In January of 2015, I had no idea where I would get the money from to pay for college expenses. My income was at an absolute zero. Now I'm teaching violin and loving it. As for college expenses, the Lord has provided so far, and that, in wonderful ways.

  Our pastor always gives us an admonition each year. A litmus test, as it were, for our salvation. He says, "When you look back over the past year, can you honestly say that you love God more now than you did a year ago?" What a thought. Can you say that? I am glad to report that I can honestly say I do. I've had a lot of new temptations and tests hit me this year, but through them all, the threads which bind me to God have only grown tighter and thicker.

  I thought I'd share a few Highlights from this year. I've divided them into two categories: Firsts and Favorites.

    1. Firsts

• Earned my first College Credits. ( I currently have 36!)
• Taught Violin - I now have nine little students.
• Caught Strep throat.
• Climbed Grandfather mountain - The most aduous and rewarding hike I've ever accomplished. Daddy, Jeddidiah, Tobias, and I hiked the entire trail hitting all four peaks, there and back again.
• Experienced my first time away from home without any other family members present.
• Navigated the ariport and security checkpoints by myself, in spite of my alarming hair pins. ;)
• Visited Indiana for the first time.
• Rode in the open bed of a pickup truck. (Something I've secretly wanted to do for years.)
• Got my permit and started learning to drive. (I nearly crashed the first time I took the wheel.)
• Started Voice Lessons and sang in public for the first time. 
• Completely memorized a seventy stanza poem. (Horatius at The Bridge by Lord Macaulay!)

 2. Favorites

• My favorite movie from this year - Beyond the Mask  
• My Favorite Hymn learned this year - Here is Love 
• My Favorite orchestral work discovered this year - Grieg's Holberg Suite
• My Favorite Fiction work read for the first time this year - Looking for The King by David Downing.
• My Favorite Non-fiction work - God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew, John Sherrill and Elizabeth Sherrill.
• Favorite Poem - Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Honorable mentions go to, "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist" by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek,  Beethoven's fifth Symphony, "Finiculi, Finicula," "Catalunia" by G.A. Rossini, "You Mission" by Ellen Gates, and "What Sweeter Music," By John Rutter, and sung by King's College Choir.

   Finally, I have a funny anecdote from this year which I find most unusual and memorable. In July, as I was on the mend from Strep, I decided to step out and take a walk in the park for the first time since I had gotten sick. I was still immensely weak and had to stop to rest every few minutes. Well, along came a girl of about ten or eleven with someone who was either her older sister or nanny; certainly too young to be her mother. They saw me stop to rest a couple times, and probably noticed my slow step. Anyhow, a couple or minutes after I'd passed them, I heard the little girl running up behind me. I stopped and turned around, "Would you like something to eat?" She asks. Surprised, I thank her but reply that I've already had the chance to have lunch I just wasn't ready to eat yet. With a smile I was on my way. It was only have a minute later, I realized the girl must have thought I was a poor lady faint with starvation. It made me remember how many different assumptions can be made from a simple action. I hadn't thought twice about my situation. The idea that someone could mistake my convalescence for  hunger, never so much as crossed my mind. However, the little girl probably never thought that I could just be someone recovering from an illness. No harm was done, nothing but a good laugh, but the situation was a good illustration of the principle to keep oneself from all appearance of evil. There was nothing wrong in this situation, but there are other situations where one must consider all the possible connotations of one's actions.

  Anyhow, I must end this now very long post.

   We have a new year, friends, a new year to live for Christ and His glory.

 I'd love to hear about any highlights, favorites or firsts from 2015 which any of you can remember.

 As for the direction of the blog for this year. My readers have been unanimous in requesting music history, giveaways, and more about my life. So that is what I'll be doing.

  Let me leave you with one thought which was impressed upon my heart this year.

    If we trust others to follow through with what they promised, if we  trust our employer to pay us for our service; why should we trust God any less, to fulfill His promises, to provide for all our needs, to sanctify us and to carry us through our trials?  We know it, but how many of us really act like we believe it? For example, why should we worry about our lives being wasted if God has promised that He will make all things beautiful in His time? Why should we be concerne that the job we have isn't enough to provide for our needs when God has already said He would provide for His own?
  
  Though we are faithless He remains Faithful for He cannot deny Himself.

   ~ Happy New Year to You  All! ~