I was just thinking about that today too. Here's my thoughts. You know, when I read my notes I sometimes think to myself, "I wrote that?" Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking, but also a lot of the time I remember what I was thinking, and I can see the many little steps I took in faith and growth. I don't mark up books, I take notes. That way when I read that book again, it is like the first time; and I take more notes. I try to keep up with rereading my notes, so as to keep a thread on as much as I can. I always think that yesterday I was not the Christian I want to be today. But there are the notes to prove that sometimes I am not the Christian today I was back then. Those notes help a lot.

Just think of it, 104 or more sermons a year, almost daily discussions on the Board, books I've read, lectures I've attended, and little things you come across in everyday living, all piling up in notebooks, like a spiritual-life journal. I'm always afraid of losing a good thought. And if its a bad thought, then its still a good thought to jot down "bad thought", and keep the note.

Why tell you this? Because you weren't not a Christian last year. It was Christ that saved you; and all you're looking back on is last year's sanctification compared to this year's. So if you see that much growth from year to year, then there is much to be thankful for.

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JohnV :detective:

John Vandervliet
Ontario, Canada
member of: Canadian Reformed Church
"In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are" C.S Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism