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There is something about the end of the year that invites reflection. One aspect of that for me is that I like to look back through my posts of the previous year and remind myself what I have been thinking about. I don’t necessarily look back through book reviews (other than listing the books I’ve read this year and then my top ten favorite books of the year) or Friday Fave Fives (though the top ones of those would probably be when Timothy was born and then when he came home from the NICU 10 1/2 weeks later) or Laudable Linkage or anything like that. Rather, I like to look back over the posts when I’ve been thinking through an issue or wrote about something that affected me or something I felt God was teaching me. So from those posts, here are some of my favorites (favorites not in the sense that I necessarily enjoyed them the most, but they are the ones that impacted me the most):

January:

Christian Fans. “How sad that people will defend at all costs a media personage, even a Christian one, who will never know them or care about them, at the expense of a relationship with someone they know and are supposed to love in their very own church and community.”

February:

Be Still? Or Fight? “Sometimes God will supernaturally win the battle for me while I only watch, but sometimes He gives me victory by handing me a sword.”

The Spiritual Value of a Secular Job.

The Value of Homemakers.

March:

Can We Let God Down?

Strong Women.

YA Censorship. A question about censorship in YA lit led to a further discussion about objectionable elements in any literature.

April:

Trusting God in the Dark.

Helping Parents As They Age, part of the Adventures in Elder Care series.

May:

None. I was spending a lot of time at the NICU that month. 🙂

June:

Eternal Glories Gleam, written after our pastor’s announcement of his terminal cancer diagnosis.

July:

But If Not….Another that grew out of my pastor’s illness: thoughts on the reality that God does not always answer prayer the way we’d like.

When People Say the Wrong Thing.

A Plea to Caregivers, another in the Adventures in Elder Care series.

August:

It was a busy month, so there is nothing in the way of “deep thoughts” except for some book reviews, but I did finally get all of my favorite cookie recipes into one post. 🙂

September:

Absent From the Body, Present With the Lord, on my pastor’s death.

My Ebenezers.

Irritating vs. Irritate-able. My biggest problem is not what irritates me, but my ability to be irritated.

October:

31 Days of Inspirational Biography. This was a series of posts through the whole month: this post contains a list with a link to each one. It did me good to look back over the lives of saints who have gone before and to learn from them.

Why Read Biographies?

November:

No Mere Mortals.

Why Read Fiction and Christian Fiction? I discussed why read at all, then why read fiction, then why read Christian fiction. This was a post that had been in the back of my mind off and on for years, so I was glad to finally get it written down. And, it’s funny, after thinking this would be my magnum opus, I don’t think it made a splash in the blog world much at all. 🙂

A revival of what?

December:

Grieving at Christmas is one I have reposted a number of times under different titles. Each year, sadly, I seem to know someone grieving the passing of a loved one this time of year.

Looking at my WordPress stats for the year, none of the current year’s posts is near the top of the number of viewed posts. The highest of them is 31 Days of Inspirational Biography at #15. The post viewed most this year (almost four times as many views as any other post) is Coping When a Husband Is Away from 2011. I’m amazed but thankful that God is using it to help women dealing with that issue.

Only a few days left of this year! Except for the monthly What’s On Your Nightstand post tomorrow and a book review or two to finish out this year, I am ready to look ahead to 2015.

It seems that my 3,000th post should call forth something witty or wise or philosophical…unfortunately it is a busy day and nothing along those lines is coming to mind. 🙂

But I do plan on some kind of giveaway later this month to commemorate my 3,000th post as well as my 7th blogging anniversary coming up at the end of July. As soon as I decide what to do for that, I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, thanks for being there. I write sometimes just to express myself or to work things out in my own mind or to pass along something the Lord’s taught me, and it’s a wonderful blessing when one of those things connects with some of you. I appreciate the blogging friends I’ve made!

I don’t know if this is of interest to anyone but me, but I like to look back through my posts at the end of the year and pick a couple or more from each month aside from the regular Friday’s Fave Fives, Nightstand posts, and book reviews. So here are some of my favorite posts of 2012: some are fun, most are thoughtful. After that I’ll share what my blogs stats say are my top posts of the year.

January:

Happy New Year!

In Memory of Susie Dog.

Thinking about resolutions and words for the year...

Tebow-mania.

Hobbies.

The Winter of Life.

Happy Birthday, Robert Burns! One of my favorite poets. And this post has the distinction of being the first (and only, as far as I know) post a teacher (my friend Ann) used in her lessons.

February:

Women in Ministry.

Submission in Christian Marriage.

March:

Christian concepts that are a little “off.“

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light” about proposed infanticide.

April:

Am I doing any good? in visiting my mother-in-law when she is too sleepy or forgetful to know I am there. (Answer: yes.)

May:

Of grace, law, commandments, rules, and effort.

Focus makes a difference.

The real problem with Facebook...

Tension.

Here I Raise My Ebenezer.

Our relationship with God.

Graduation weekend.

If I were to write a book.…

June:

When you’re married to a scientist.…

July:

Favorite Places.

Discernment.

When God doesn’t deliver.

The surprise at Mary’s prayer meeting.

August:

One who has influenced my life.

September:

Songs in the Night.

“As Seen on the Internet”

October:

What grace does not mean.

November:

The Captain of My Fate.

Thoughts about the election.

An adoption story.

Carrie’s Getting to Know You questions.

A Perfect Christmas (repost)

December:

Learning from the Savior’s learned obedience.

What does it mean to magnify the Lord?

It looks like I did a lot more thinking some months than others — or at least had more time to record my “stray thoughts” then.

According to my blog stats, my top 20, most read posts are:

The first year or two I blogged, I posted a lot of seasonal and holiday things (poems, devotional reading, etc.) that I had accumulated over the years from doing a monthly newsletter. Those always get the most “hits” November-December, I guess from people looking for the same thing. But I am pleased to find some of my original posts there as well and hope people are finding them useful. It’s about 40 posts in before we get into any of my posts from this year. Hmm…I wonder if that means the quality of my writing is declining. 🙂 Or maybe it just means those posts have been “out there” a bit longer and show up on searches more easily. I don’t know.

A day or two after I worked on this post, I received a year-end summary for my blog from WordPress. This is only the second year they’ve done this kind of thing, but it is interesting to me. Here is their prepared excerpt::

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 180,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 3 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

I don’t know why they’re going with “helper monkeys”….

Thank YOU for being a reader!