You Crown The Year With Your Goodness


















photo and table-setting courtesy of my sister Sarah
photo and table-setting courtesy of my sister Sarah






"You crown the year with Your goodness, and your paths drip with abundance." Psalm 65: 11

Right now, I am exactly twenty minutes away from the stroke of 12. 

So, Happy New Year, dear friends! 
'Tis hard to believe that we are on the eve of a new year! For me, 2012 has been a difficult year in many ways yet it was also a beautiful year... an amazing year, and one filled with the evidence of God's faithfulness in my life, and a fullness of His joy and hope. It was a year filled with love and promise and fellowship. Despite some trials, I always knew that God was there with me. He has showered me with tender mercies and blessings and the comfort of His love. I underwent a lot of growth in 2012 (not physically  for I am no taller!) but learnt a lot, only to realize there is SO MUCH MORE YET TO LEARN. This year, I discovered a new depth in my love of writing and wrote and published my first ever short story, A Love that Never Fails, and advanced in my writing skills and intellectual reading (a little... ^.^)! It has been the year I turned seventeen (which I'm loving already!), it has been the year I have discovered J.R.R. Tolkien and Rosemary Sutcliff and more of C. S. Lewis and Abigail J. Hartman and Jennifer Freitag (which makes any year illustrious in itself!), it is the year I joined NaNoWriMo for the first time and laid aside 'The Crown of Life' for a time (sniff sniff), and chose to write 'A Love that Never Fails' into a novel, it is the year I attended writer's workshops, studied such amazing things at school (and... not.so.amazing.things too...) etc, etc! There have been sad and difficult moments too, like the passing away of my Grandpa (I miss him a lot!) or the stress of schoolwork :p. I had to give up some things this year, some dreams and friendships... but I was abundantly blessed by others. The blessing of family and the love we have for one another... the spiritual and physical blessings we've received and miracles we've experienced,  God's loving hand on our lives, and the new friends we've formed has all been a part of the legacy of 2012. I can say confidently, that the Lord has been faithful through it and upholded my steps so I would not utterly fall. 

I thank the Lord Jesus for all He has done for me and my family this year, and also I am so grateful for the friends He's brought in my life... friends like you, dear readers of Fullness of Joy! You've all been such a blessing to me!! ♥ You have encouraged me all along the way this year, especially in my writing journey, through comments, e-mails and sweet messages. I am so thankful!!

I am very excited for this new year and for all that God will do in it. It is all a new page, crisp and white like the sheets of my Christmas diary, a new chapter in your life and mine untold. I wonder how the story goes on, but I trust the Great Author in whatever He writes... though I may not now understand it all, yet it is all being written and molded by His loving Hands in love: one day the canvas shall be unfolded and we shall see that 'Jesus is Victor'! My sister Sarah wrote a lovely little message for the new year and I happily got permission to quote her! 'Ahead is a new year - still a blank sheet on which a new chapter of the story of my life and yours are still to be written, a clean canvas on which a beautiful design is still to be woven! He is not finished. My prayer is that I would be a ready pencil in His hand and a knotless thread in His skillful hands this year. May it be our prayer - all of us!'


"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7: 12

♥ So... hello, 2013!! ♥

Comments

  1. Happy New Year, Joy! I have finally got around to commenting on your blog again! The Lord is always faithful, and it is when looking back that we realise just how faithful He has been to us. May you know His presence and abundant blessing in 2013.

    In Christ,
    Anna

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  2. Lovely pictures! You have a good eye. And that is a simply stunning church (cathedral?) that you have pictures of at the top. Do you mind saying where/what it is?

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  3. Dear Anna,

    Happy New Year to you too! It was lovely to read your sweet comment (I had missed you on the blogging world!)... I hope to go and comment on some of your new posts soon :).

    Yes, the Lord has been SO faithful the past year... no, not just last year but always, and I know from His Word and from experience that He'll remain so. Thank you, sister, I pray the same to you too in this new year of 2013. May His love surround and bless you every day.

    Love in Christ,
    Joy

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  4. Hello Grace,

    Thank you for your lovely comment and for stopping by, it is always a pleasure to see new faces around 'Fullness of Joy' :).

    Oh, thank you! I am still working to improve my photographic skills and learning to operate my new camera... ;). Sure, I don't mind answering your question, that is St. John's Cathedral which resides in Brisbane QLD. It's a very impressive and beautiful Church building and I love the opportunity to sing in my school's choir during Christmas. It is a real blessing!

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  5. Beautiful post, Joy! I love all the little snapshots of your Christmas especially the ones of your table at Christmas, The Hobbit ticket(?) and the word "Joy" on your tree. :D
    2012 was a difficult year for me too but as you so skillfully expressed; it has also been a amazing year full of wonderful blessings and many evidences of the goodness and faithfulness of our Saviour. You, of course, were one of those blessings and I can not tell you how grateful I am for your friendship, mu Joyful-ness. <3
    I'm so very sorry about your Grandpa, dear. *big hug * I know what it is like to lose a loved one, my Grandpa went to be with the Lord about three years ago. He was the only Grandpa I ever knew and I was very close to him so it was hard... but I'm vastly comforted by the thought that I will see him again one day. :)
    I feel just like you do as I think about this year ahead. I'm excited and I can't wait to experience everything in store for me! :)
    I hope and pray that God rains many blessings down on you and your family in 2013, Joy darling!

    P.S. Please tell Sarah that I thought what she wrote was beautiful and have I permission to copy it down in my Journal?

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  6. Thank you, Annie dear! Your comment made me smile happily *hugs*.
    Yes, that's The Hobbit ticket ;). Glad you enjoyed the post, particularly the photos. Aww, dear sweetest lovely Annie!! Thank you so much for your sweet words <3. I am so very grateful to have you as a friend. Your sisterly love and friendship is such a blessing to me too! God is so good.

    *smiles and wipes tears*, thank you, Annie. I miss my Grandpa a lot, but I do have a hope that I may see him in Heaven one day. That is my prayer. That must have been hard for you too, to loose your Grandpa. Both my Grandpa and Grandma on my mum's side passed away when I was about eleven and they had been in Egypt then so I rarely ever got to see them. I miss them a lot as well. My only surviving grandparent now is my dad's mum and she's in Egypt too. It is hard, but I thank the Lord Jesus too for the blessings He has given us, and look forward, like you, to see them in God's Kingdom!

    This year sure feels exciting for me too, though terribly busy with schoolwork etc, etc. With Jesus with us though, I am fully at peace and excited =D.

    Thank you, Annie. The same I do pray for you in 2013. May the Lord Jesus bless you abundantly with His unfailing love, dear sister <3 <3. *hugs*

    P.S. Sarah was so happy that you were blessed by those words of hers for the New Year and said you sure could copy them onto your journal ;).

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"Gracious words are like a honeycomb; sweetness to the soul and health to the body..." ~Proverbs 16:24