So Long, 2015

2015 was not my favorite.  

It seems at the end of each year when I reflect on the previous 364 days, I can always find good and bad.  Some years, the good outweighs the bad.  In years like this, I am just ready to put it behind me and start fresh.  

I read a quote the other day about that half empty/half full glass and our outlook on it.  It said something like:

"Whether you think the glass is half empty or half full, you're missing the point.  The glass is refillable."  

 A new year gives us opportunities to refill our glasses.  We can assess our lives and make goals to improve.  We can start over----start fresh---change.  We can refill the glasses with what is important and see each day as an opportunity to do something to make our lives better.  When the glass is less than full, refill it!  

HOW?!?  

How can this be possible when what drains the glass is beyond our control?  How can I be full of good energy when bad things keep getting dumped my way?  How can I remember not to get down when my glass always seems to be less than full?  

There is only one answer:  Faith that someday all things will be made right, that every glass will be filled.  Our hope in that truth can help us refill the glass each day, even when the outlook is bleak.  We can be like the wise virgins and strive to always be filling our vessels, even if one drop at a time.  (see Matthew 25).   I have learned to not worry that my glass never seems to be completely full, for I am constantly being buoyed up---by recognizing blessings,  through the power of prayer, and with my faith in Christ.  

To close up the year of Sunday School, we opened a time capsule: answers we had written to our future selves, answering the question: "What think ye of Christ."  On Jaunary 4, 2015, I wrote this:

"I know our Savior knows each of us personally.  He is our advocate with the Father.  If we will yoke our lives with His, we will have the strength to make it through any trial."       

How interesting that this was my testimony early in the year---BEFORE the terrible news that cancer had returned sought to drain my glass.  I already had that foundation to understand that faith in Christ gives us strength to endure.  This faith also helps us refill our glasses because Jesus Christ is that living water that never runs dry.  This faith will not only fill our glasses in this life, but will "spring up into everlasting life."  (see John 4: 10, 14).  

For those still feeling like their glass is never full, that there are never enough blessings to outweigh the challenges, remember the source of living water--Jesus Christ.  Remember that there is more than just a glass to be filled.  Someday, we will see the fountains of living water, such that we will never thirst.  We will not have to worry about an empty or full glass because the fountains will never run dry, and all the tears will be wiped from our eyes.  (See Revelation 7:17).  Someday, it won't matter how empty or full our glasses were in 2015, but that we sought to never let them completely run dry, with help from the Living Water.