I was definitely ready for 2017 to be over. The year had some crazy plot twists that I wasn’t ready for. My best friend told me she was glad 2017 was ending better than it had started. She asked me if I felt the same. At first I said no. That this year ended just as terrible as 2016 did, however I needed to check my journal because I could be wrong.

I journal just about everyday even if its only for a few minutes. It’s a good way for me to do my devotional and keep track of my prayers and my insights on what God has said to me. So I sat down and read my journals from November 2016 until now. I was wrong. This year is ending much better than it started. I ended the year with confusion and anguish. I had a tough decision to make and prayed and prayed and I still couldn’t tell if that was what God wanted me to do. Beginning of 2017 was not great either. Things really started to pick up around May. Summer 17 was all the way lit. It would have been the one of best summers of my adult life if my dog had not unexpectedly died.

Fall was cool but work was really busy. That got in the way of my personal life. I look back at that time I see myself trying to recapture those summer feelings.

Journaling is the best because you can reflect on how things happened and when. The bad times are fresher in our memory than the good times. I’m not sure why that is. Writing them down I had my own track record of God making moves in my life. It’s one thing to read about it happening to someone else, it’s another to experience it for yourself. In another post I will share my journal entry before the summer started and how everything I asked from God happened.

As we move into the new year can you say that 2017 is ending better than it started? Do you see the evidence of that? Start a journal. It doesn’t have to be fancy or time consuming. I read a devotional and a few verses and write in the morning before I get in the shower. It’s a great way to give my plans and worries to God before I go to work. It’s a nice way to spend time with God before the day gets to busy.

2018 will be a new year with new opportunities.

Having a journal will not only help you track your progress but allow you to see what God is saying to you. Having a reference makes it so much easier to go back and do what God told you to do. It also allows you to make any character adjustments you need to make because you can see over and over what you are praying for and how God is responding. Reading all the whining I was doing to God in the beginning of the year definitely helped me make some attitude adjustments in the second half of the year.