2012 in Review

In the lead up to the flip to 2013, I read may posts on Facebook proclaiming how people were happy 2012 was over. Every time I saw these I was struck by a couple facts. First, I usually had no idea what had made the year bad for these people, with one notable exception where death and illness seemed to loom over the family. Secondly, I completely could not relate. In the long view, I think 2012 was a good year for me.

First and foremost, God kept my family safe and healthy. My children are growing up and Shelly and I continue to grow together. Savannah had her first full year in the Plymouth Fife and Drum Corps, in which she made a bunch of friends and is already looking forward to her next five years. Sierra decided she wants to be a writer and spent 2012 working on her first novel, building in that habit of daily writing, which is well beyond where I was in middle school. Shelby and Sienna both started playing violin, playing at a nursing home over Christmas and all of the kids have maintained very good grades. Shelly and I also started a regular prayer time in the evenings, just the two of us, which not only makes us closer, but closer to God.

This year was also a very good one for my church, Praise Baptist Church. We have continued to grow in numbers and in numbers of people serving. We brought on board Pastor Andrew, an incredibly gifted music minister and we saw the immediate growth of the choir and praise band, breathing new life into nearly all the services. Rush Hour, a huge youth event Pastor Jim and the youth put on, nearly doubled in student participation and the kids, for the first time in a long time, did an out of state mission trip. Lastly, this was a year Pastor Jeff, the senior Pastor, introduced impact Sundays and was really able to more safely let go. Additionally, perhaps selfishly, my friendships with all three of these men grew this year.

Overall, 2012 was a great year for friendships. James and I put on a small gaming convention, which was a pretty big success. We got to spend a weekend playing all kinds of games with our friends from around the country. Even though the time was short, I would absolutely say, I became closer to each of them individually, but the group as a whole drew together afterwards, looking to simulate that face to face time. In addition to getting closer to Matt and Kevin, Steve and Larry, James' Sister and Brother-in-law were also there, and I hope to be able to more with them this year. Not only did the con get me closer to existing friends and introduce new friends, but it stirred the idea of doing this every year or even every 6 months. i met others i. Tis year who have similar nerdy interests as well; I started friendships I'm hoping to develop in Derek, from church and Steve, from the Corps, both of which seem to have busy schedules, but like some of the same kinds of games I do.

It is not all gaming, though. Several of the married men from church have started having guy's nights, long after the ladies were doing ladies nights, which reinforces the bonds was already have, gives us more common things to talk about. Between this, and just interactions with my Sunday school class, this has created a glut of things to do and people to do them with. 2012 was the year I really got to know Simon and Larry and Jim.

Then there is my accountability relationships, those people who allow me into their lives and are willing to be a part of mine. These are full of successes. Steve has been my support to exercise and diet (still down 15 after the holidays) and encourage people. Josh has reminded me to pray with my wife, even when I was busy and wanted to be lazy. My wife has held me to do my daily Bible reading. All of these things are part of what made 2012 so good. Also, I have a couple friends that I have held to working out, which have been successful. I've held another friend to perform Godly acts, even when he didn't want to. I've held another to buckle down on getting things done, take better control of his household, and grow spiritually. While they did all the work, I was just a sounding board who checked in, I'm happy with the small role I played in these successes. There was a lot of success in 2012.

So, I just can't relate to the thought that 2012 was so bad. It seemed pretty good to me. I'm not regretting the fact that it is over, though. i want to keep moving forward. So, for 2013, I say, bring it on. If 2012 was good, let's make 2013 great.