Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2006! It is always amazing to have a chance at a clean slate, a brand new beginning. And at the same time, sometimes entering a new year is a bit scary, as it will certainly bring some things we may not look forward to. I am excited that this will be the year I finish my first year of law school, but I also know that this is the year that my first born, my precious daughter, will be leaving to go away to college. While I want her to go, learn, and succeed, it is difficult to face the reality of what that really means.....not hearing about she is excited (or pissed off!) about when she gets home from school each day, not sharing all the silliness that we do, not having another female in the house with me! It's an odd feeling to on one hand be happy for her and know she will accomplish so much and yet ache in my heart for how much I will miss her.

Ok, I have to stop myself. Before I look ahead any more, I want to say that in addition to having gone back to school in 2005, I also did something else. I read the entire Bible cover to cover. Sure, I have been in various Bible studies for years, and have read a lot of it, but I had never actually read the entire thing. Last January 1, I started reading One Year Through the Bible
and I finished it yesterday! This version is really nice, because it gives you a little overview, an application, and then gives you a selection from the day's passage to read. You can either read the abbreviated passage, or look up the entire passage in another Bible. If you read the full passages, you will finish the Bible in one year. I did it! I won't say I'm proud of myself (because don't we all know that "pride comes before the fall") but it does feel like an accomplishment. I had attempted to do this several times in the past, and never made it past March. Also, doing this daily reading is how I found my "theme" verse, which in case you don't remember is:

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." ~Psalm 82:3-4

Yeah, 2005 was a great year. But I'm looking forward to what 2006 will bring, even the challenges......