Looking Back + Answered Prayers

Do you ever stop to think about where you were this time, last year?  Or even last month?  I feel like we put a lot of emphasis on prayer, but we rarely recognize the answers to those very same prayers.

Looking back...last August...

...I was 3-months graduated, working at my mom's store, & living at home.  All good things, & exactly where I was supposed to be a that time, but not where God wanted to keep me.

Now I have a full-time job & an apartment of my own.  And still, I know with 100% certainty that this is where God wants me.

...I'd just become friends with McKinlie & had just begun leading my youth girls' Bible study.  I had really just begun to feel like I was really a part of my church since I'd moved back home.

Now I can barely remember before McKinlie was one of my best friends (back when I used to babysit her...).  And my church at home is on the cusp of moving into our very first building of our own.  This week the air will be turned on & there will be LIGHT in the sanctuary!  Not only that, but I've found a great church where I am.  I love being a part of two growing, Christ-centered fellowships.

...It still felt weird to not be going back to school for the first time in nineteen years.  I missed my friends from school & my sorority & my Bible study, most of all.

And...it still feels weird when so many of my friends are going back to school & I'm not.  I still miss them, but lately I've seen so many of them growing in ways that I've prayed for for years but had never really seen the fruit of those prayers.  Proud of them.

A lot can change in a year.  And God is behind it all.  Look back & give HIM the glory for the changes & growth in your life & the lives around you.

I'd love to know about the prayers He's answered.  Feel free to look back over your year & what He's done...comment & tell me if you do so I can be sure to read it!