What If?

Tonight I was sitting in our "Library," enjoying our brightly lit Christmas tree, reflecting on this past year and wondering about the year to come.  

I know, I know. 'Tis the season for memories to be remembered and resolutions to be made. But I wasn't thinking about the memorable moments of this year. I wasn't even coming up with a list in my head of what I want to change come 2016. 

I'll tell you what I was thinking about. I was thinking about the things I walked through and the ways I grew these past twelve months. And I was thinking about how much potential lie in the next twelve. 

This year was crazy, guys. I got my first real job ("Welcome to Walgreens!"). I watched my siblings move thousands of miles away. I made new friends. I grew closer to old friends. I got involved in my church. I became an aunt...again. I found out I'm going to be basically-an-aunt next Spring. I lost thirteen pounds. I applied to community college and registered for classes. I got my first smartphone. Like, lots of craziness and fun and hard stuff. Lots of it.

But I'm not writing to tell you about my reflections regarding this year.
I'm writing to talk to you about the musings I had for the year to come.

You see I started thinking to myself, "I wonder where I'll be in a year?" Which led to a lot of "What if..?" statements. Some examples! "What if school doesn't work out?" "What if I lose even more weight?" "What if I'm not single come next Christmas?" What if, what if, what if!

The What Ifs of life are enough to drive anyone crazy! But as my mind was spinning, you know what came to mind? God's got this. He had this whole year - He's had my whole life - He's got the next twelve months.

Maybe that seems like an unnecessary point to make because duh! Everyone knows that, LauraBeth. But think about it. Really think about it. Why get nervous or anxious about the What Ifs - the unkowns - of life? Why not, instead, take advantage of the awesome peace that comes from trusting a God who knows what He's doing?

I almost wasn't going to write this tonight. Know why? Because the first thought that went through my mind was "What if I'm not qualified to share this?"

But I did write it because of the very next thought: "What if God wants someone to read it?"