Run and Be Still is officially two years old. Break out the party hats, cake, and ice cream. (Any reason is a good reason to celebrate with sweets, right?)

I have this thing with old pictures…I love them. I love the stories they represent, the old memories they hold within them. I can get lost in them, laughing and crying and remembering.  

I spent a period of my life scrapbooking, putting together these beautiful pages of memories when my kids were little. They are now 15 and 12…the scrapbooks stop at about ages 3 and 6. I always meant to get back to them but life happens and time passes. (And any fellow scrapbookers out there know how time consuming and messy this process can be.) But I absolutely treasure the ones that I do have. These books represent our past, they tell our story as a family and individually. Our triumphs and struggles. The faces in the books that are no longer with us, existing and living on only in our memories. 

And then, the past has this inexplicable way of making us look to the future. Wondering how the babies that we just held are about to be taking to the road on their own. Gasping at having blown through our elementary years and wondering what the house is going to be like when it’s quiet. 

Today I got lost in Run and Be Still’s memories for awhile. This is our history, something that you have been a part of in a very real way. The idea that just by coming together in writing and reading, responding and sharing, we have this connection…we are affecting and shaping each other’s days. 

This past year we’ve had squawking chickens and floods. We continued to celebrate our answered prayers in the miracle of Hannah. We’ve recently tried to answer tough questions like “Is Jesus alone enough?” I gave away some books and we laughed along with Sarah. In October I was blown away by your response to my post Standing With The Trees. Last summer we decided on not taking ourselves too seriously, and I made a public apology for the weeds growing in my flower beds.  

Overall we have shared 209 posts, had 7533 different visitors with over 40 countries represented! We are sharing life and God and struggle and celebration. We have a history, and there is a big and unknown future for us. 

I don’t know where the next year will find us but hopefully our little RABS (Run and Be Still)  family will be a little bit bigger, our embrace reaching a little bit further. 

Dear Me,

Today you need this reminder. 

On days like today as I look back I have realized we don’t always see the mountains moving in front of us, sometimes it’s a slow process and it’s only as we look in the rearview mirror that we are able to appreciate how far they have moved and how far we have come. I find myself continually amazed at God’s goodness and provision, in sickness, fear, and grief for certain, but also on the good days. He is right in our midst, everyday, if we open our eyes and ears, and soften our hearts to His presence.

How much more could God do with us if by His grace He can move mountains with mustard seed faith and He causes great oak trees to spring forth from tiny acorns? This next year, I pledge to stop wondering “What if?” (And all the other questions I ask myself like “Is anyone listening?” “Does anyone care?” “Am I making a difference?”) and induce my faith, let God take the reins, and continue listening, sharing, and putting one foot in front of the other even when I am weary and it doesn’t make sense. Then I can rest confident in that fact that if I reach one or one hundred thousand it has been exactly God’s plan. I love what Mother Theresa says, “God has not called me to be successful. He called me to be faithful.”
~Happy Birthday Run and Be Still, 5/29/14