Happy New Year blog friends!

I love this day that ushers in a new year, a new month, and a new decade. New beginnings! Gotta love ’em!

For those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile, you know that one of my focuses in 2009 was on scripture memory. I joined my “Scripture Mama” Beth Moore via her blog community at Living Proof Ministries last year two times a month to post the scripture passages I worked on memorizing. I’m not sure if Mama Beth is going to continue this in a blog format again this year, but I loved it so much that I have determined to do so. It really made a huge impact on me last year – got me deeper into God’s word and enabled me opportunities to use the scriptures that I memorized in very tangible ways.

So, I’m going to follow the same format that we were instructed to do last year. It worked very well and works even better to have friends doing it together for accountability purposes! Care to join me? Here’s how it’s going to work…

1. Go to your local Walmart, Walgreens, Target or something similar and pick up a spiral bound index card set (like in the picture below). They really are inexpensive, and will help to keep your scriptures organized all in one place.

2. On the 1st and 15th of each month, we’ll be choosing a verse from scripture to memorize. It can be as short or as long as you’d like, but I would encourage you to choose something challenging and yet not so challenging that you set yourself up for failure from the get-go. These need to be scriptures that you’ve never committed to memory before. They don’t have to be ones you’ve never heard just ones you’ve never memorized. Some of the ones that I chose last year were ones I’ve heard my whole but never took the time to memorize. If you’re struggling with choosing a scripture, then I invite you to memorize the same one that I’m doing. I certainly don’t mind sharing!

3. Then, write your scripture, book and verse(s), and Bible translation on one of your index cards. Carry that spiral around with you everywhere – car, work, bathroom, whatever it takes to write that verse on your heart.

4. After writing it down, come back here and post a comment and include the same things in the verse above…the actual Biblical reference with book and verse(s) as well as your first name, city and state. That’s it! It’s simply a way to hold each of us accountable. We’ll do this each month on the 1st and 15th, and you’ll be amazed at how God uses this discipline in your life!

Now…I realize that with this being New Year’s Day, you may not have time or desire to rush right out and buy a spiral notebook. That’s okay. Just try to do so as soon as possible. For today, you can just write the verse down on a piece of paper and transfer to your spiral later. Just start!

Some of you may happen upon this blog post after January 1 and still wish to be included. OF COURSE you may still join us. This is not a selective community. The more the merrier, and if I happen to be the only one posting on the 1st and 15th – I’m still going to do it. However, the more public I make this – the more accountable I’m going to be.

Lastly – tell all your friends to stop by! I’d love to see this scripture community grow. It’s one of my passions! I honestly don’t care if they don’t want to read a single one of my blog posts, but I’d be tickled pink to have them join us these two days a month!

So…are you going to join me? What’s holding you back? Here we go…

My first scripture passage of the month (and year) is coming from my absolutely favorite New Testament book of the Bible – James! I’ve really thought a lot about the fact that I use the faith word rather loosely. Yes, I have faith about this or I have faith about that…blah blah blah. The real question is this – am I putting feet to my faith or is it all talk? That’s where this verse comes in.

James 2:17 (NLT)
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

Ouch! James gave us some pretty tough words to chew on, and I especially love the New Living Translation of this verse.

Another tool for you to use if you’d like to examine different translations of a verse to help you decide which to use is BibleGateway.com. I love that website!

So…are you in? Are you going to walk this scripture memorization journey with me in 2010? Ready to get spiritually healthier? Jump aboard! Let’s embark!

Oh my…only two more days of this 40-day blogging madness (including this one)! I think I can…I think I can…I think I can…

Anyway…today, I’m stealing this blog post idea from my dearest friend over at Prints2Prince. I have to give her all the credit for the idea, because my creativity is running a bit short these days. But, I do think it’s great to take a few moments to reflect on those memorable moments of this past year. So, here we go…

January
A month of birthdays – my own and my daughter’s and LOTS and LOTS of family members! We also saw our first taste of snow for the year!

February
Giving thanks for both of my sweethearts on Valentine’s Day! We also had the privilege of celebrating my sweet mother-in-law’s birthday in Virginia. The end of February also brought Scrap Camp – a weekend full of scrapbooking with a bunch of fun gals!

mom-in-law, hubby, me

March
We were blessed by another big snow (on March 1 to be exact)! I love snow – as long as the power stays on and it’s not too inconvenient! How’s that for pickiness? 🙂 The other big March event was getting to meet Paul Young – author of The Shack!

April
One of the highlights of April was getting to attend the Easter morning sunrise service at Chimney Rock Park – a first for us! The last day of April brought my foot surgery (still healing from it unfortunately).

May
Our extended family was blessed by the addition of Jonah Gage Slack. He was born May 6 and “officially” adopted by my brother and his wife on December 21!

June
We took a family trip to Grandfather Mountain! Leah was in full swing at work on camp, so it was a bit of a rarity to be able to get away as a family for a day trip.

July
With camp in full session, we had to make another quick getaway for a family day trip. This time – to the Carl Sandburg Home in Flat Rock, NC. I also had a wonderful weekend getaway in Pigeon Forge, TN with some sweet Jesus-loving women from church!

August
Big month! Vacationed in Myrtle Beach. Our sweet friends – The Propsts – gave us the use of their beach house again for a week. This was also the month that we moved – two streets down! Chris celebrated his birthday on moving day. Not too fun for him unfortunately, but he was a trooper about it – as is his nature ALWAYS!

September
Had a fun Labor Day Weekend with our dear friends in Hillsborough, NC. The “boys” went fishing and brought home some yummy blue gill for our fish fry to go along with the catfish that Christ scuba dived/spear hunted for (back in June actually). Leah learned to shoot a gun for the first time. Anna had a blast with her baby cousin, Ryan.

September also brought a fun Sunday afternoon picnic and time of apple picking with our Connect Group friends from church.

I also had the privilege of winning some free tickets to Christian Music Day at Carowinds and got to see my favorite artist – Chris Tomlin – in concert. It rained so much that I had to put my camera back in the car before the concert, but I got a few pics while at the park.

October
I honestly can’t believe it, but I can’t find any pictures from October! What was I thinking? It must have been a rather dull month – or so busy that I forgot to snap pics. But, I put up enough in September to count for both months.

Actually, we had the privilege of attending the Michael W. Smith concert on October 23 at the Bilo Center in Greenville, SC. Wish I had pictures, but I have wonderful memories of that evening that will last a lifetime!

November
November brought lots: Anna’s first 7th grade band concert, another weekend pre-Thanksgiving gathering with our Virginia family, Christmas lights at the Bristol Motor Speedway, Thanksgiving with our peeps in Hillsborough, Christmas tree hunting, and CMCS (Carolina Mountain Christmas Spectacular) at church. Whew! Busy month! And…that’s just the highlights.

December
My favorite month of the year! In December, we were so blessed to be a part of our church’s annual production of Carolina Mountain Christmas Spectacular. We also had the biggest snowfall of the decade on December 18, and of course…the highlight of the month: CHRISTMAS!!!!

Thanks for stopping by (or enduring) my year of memories in pictures! It really has been a great year. I didn’t mention all the struggles that also came during 2009, but I choose not to dwell on those. Overall, I realize that I am most blessed, and the blessings are what I choose to focus on!

Stop back tomorrow for the final day of the blogging challenge! Until then…

Be blessed my friends!