Snow is gently falling, creating a snow-globe scene out my living room window that is pretty enough to be on a Christmas card. My dogs are faithfully laying at my feet and a steaming mug of Christmas In Paris tea warms my fingertips.
As I’m typing, I’m reflecting on another year that will soon be a piece of history. A year with all its joys, sorrows, burdens, darkness, light, chaos, peace. A year that had its triumphs and its defeats.
But one thing remained the same — Jesus Christ, The Timeless Anchor.
Because music is so much a part of who I am, I can look back on this year and see the songs I listened to during different times and they tell the story of my year in a way only music can.
This post is a time capsule, if you will, of a year that I will never forget.
My thought was that maybe the songs I list will be a blessing to someone else going through storms in their own life. So without further ado, here is my year in review (music edition).
Word of the Year
Many people start their year off with a “theme word” that they want to focus on throughout the coming year. What I’ve found though is that I don’t have to come up with a special word to keep my focus. God will typically teach me what He wants my focus on throughout the year, without any help from yours truly. And usually it is nowhere close to what I may have thought it would be.
Looking back on 2023, if I could only use one word to describe what God has been teaching me I wouldn’t have to hesitate or think on it for any length of time. One word jumps out from the pages of 2023: Trust.
It hasn’t been through one circumstance that God has been teaching me trust. No, it’s been circumstance after circumstance this year.
On multiple occasions, due to various storms that rose in my family’s lives, I had to ask myself some pointed questions.
Will I trust The One who knows the future, or will I cower in the face of giants too big for me to see a way around?
Is God truly trustworthy? Has He ever broken my trust? (Don’t give me that look, like you’ve never had to answer that question in the deepest parts of your heart.)
What if God chooses for me to walk through the fire? Will I step into the flames with a heart fully trusting that He will keep me in the palm of His hand?
I have to admit that answering those questions was sometimes difficult, because all I could see was the size of the mountain instead of the strength of my God. But I can say without any hesitation that God proved himself trustworthy time and again. Not a single burden fell on our shoulders that He didn’t lift. Not a tempest rose that He didn’t calm. Not a bad circumstance came that He didn’t work together for our good.
No, not everything ended in the way I would have chosen for myself. There are still uncertainties in the future that sometimes make me fear. I still battle having full faith to trust God’s plans. Some storms are ongoing and haven’t been resolved.
But that’s where trust comes in.
January
January was a whirl. If I’m being truthful, last January was a struggle for me spiritually. A lot of things were transpiring in my immediate family, and I found myself feeling very purposeless and wondering what God wanted for me.
Two songs stand out in my mind as having been important to me during January of last year.
February
February was a month that no one saw coming. We suddenly found ourselves facing a battle against a very serious sickness that was trying its best to steal my baby nephew’s life. The days of February saw the most fervent prayer vigils within the walls of hospitals. It saw the moments when we were so broken we couldn’t stand any longer. It saw our fears, our hopes, and our prayers in the most raw ways.
Apart from the Word of God, music is where my soul finds peace and healing. Which is why February had a long list of songs that became my playlist whenever I felt overwhelmed.
March
March was a time of healing for my family. Healing from the stress of watching our baby fighting death’s hand, healing from being apart for over a month, healing from the storm that had threatened to consume us. It was in March that we were finally able to begin looking back at all of the times during February that God carried us in the storm.
It wasn’t all peaceful sailing though. March also saw baby hospitalized again, with the possibility of cancer. Thankfully, God interceded and it ended up not being cancer!
Your Cries Have Awoken the Master
April
In honesty, the middle months of this year went by so quickly that I don’t remember some of them. What I do remember specifically is getting to watch our miracle baby reach the milestones we never thought we’d see.
Simple things that most people take for granted — things like hearing their baby cry, watching them wiggle, and being able to feed them without a special tube.
Your Ways Are Higher Than Mine
May
May went by too quickly to remember a lot of it. But this song found a special place on my playlist that month:
Regardless of the ever changing circumstances of life, I can be sure of my loving Savior.
June
June is another month that I don’t remember much of, most likely because my brain was in the stress mode of helping plan a family wedding.
While I still listened to all of the songs from previous months, these two made their way onto the list:
I guess, you might say that June was a month of reflection on everything we witnessed God do.
July
July saw exciting things happen, as our miracle baby was able to have his feeding tube removed! This, in and of itself, was a powerful testament to God’s powerful hand moving in ways we could never imagine.
It was also exciting because I became a published author! You can read about that HERE.
The words of both of these songs meant a lot to me in July (and they still do 😉).
“You make dry ground, where once were oceans. Where once were mountains, You make them low.”
I Just Wanted You To Know
August
This was the month of the family wedding that added a lot of emotional and physical burdens to the mix. Apart from that, I was at a standstill while trying to figure out health concerns and had no idea which way I should go.
I was reminded to trust in Him. Then reminded how even one good word can lift someone’s spirits. And finally, reminded to keep looking back on what God has done instead of fearing what my future will be.
September
I was accepted to the Seize the Moment anthology in September, which was very exciting for me. But while that was going on, there were a lot of things going on behind the scenes in my personal life that required me to stand still and let God move. It was one more instance where God was trying to teach me to trust Him fully.
October
October was a hard month in a million ways. It saw some of the darkest moments this year, as things with my health took an unexpected turn that will impact the rest of my life.
In those very dark moments though, music ministered to my soul. These songs will always hold a special place in my heart for the way God used them to heal my spirit.
God Will Make This Trial A Blessing
November
November got a little brighter after the devastation of October. I was challenged to keep track, throughout the day, of things that I wanted to thank God for. You can read about that in this post HERE
December
I listened to all the Christmas songs throughout this past month, but this one in particular was powerful to me. I especially was struck with the phrase that says, “he was bruised for our transgressions and He bears eternal scars”.
What a loving Savior we serve, that He would choose eternal scars in exchange for our salvation!
Looking back on this year, I sometimes don’t understand how my family and I survived to see the end of it. Some years just seem to bring more trials than others. This was one of them for us.
This post isn’t an opportunity for me to complain about it, but rather I hope it shows how powerful my God is. He carried us through stormy waters, fiery pathways, dark valleys, and treacherous mountain peaks. He will take us through the storms of the coming year.
One verse sticks out in my mind to sum up this post:
“Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.”
Psalm 107:43
The previous verses in the chapter tell us of so many powerful things God has done. This verse tells us that if we are wise, we will observe His mighty acts and it will cause us to understand His lovingkindness.
That is what I want for 2024. I want to remember the powerful things He did in my life this past year, and rest in the knowledge that He will never change.
Now it’s your turn. Tell me how your year has been, in the comments! What were some top songs from your year’s playlist? What has God been teaching you?
A. M. Watson
Hebrews 13:8
Seeking The Timeless Anchor 
Oh goodness. As one extremely privy to your year, here I am at 3am (once again) reading a post about the strength and trustworthiness of our God. It’s as if He’s trying to teach me something. Haha
The middle of the night and I are close friends anymore. Fears, hopes, dreams, prayer, and tears often fill my nights. The Lord used music in a special way for me as well, but I would like to start with a verse He gave me, late this year, that I have clung to.
1 Cor 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Oh how I’ve seen the wisdom of men this year. How I’ve had to lean on the ineptness of it. But one thing proved itself over and over again. My God’s power. His might. His care. His inability to be anything but faithful… Heb 10:23 “for He is faithful that promised…”
He turned man’s ineptness into miracles before my eyes. So I guess the song would have to be…
“How can I fear?”
Thankfully, I don’t have to. 🙂
1 Pet 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
I’m personally looking forward to another year of blog posts, triumphs, trials, and the miracles of God!
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I would personally love to see more people leave a comment here about their year and God’s work in their lives. The Bible says to ” let the redeemed of the Lord say so” and to ” give thanks unto the Lord…make known his deeds among the people.”.
I guess my year would be summed up with the song ” Is Your All On The Altar?” Which should be followed with “Sweet Hour Of Prayer”, but I find I am lacking in that area recently and certainly have never truly attained.
What a wonderful way to sum up the last year! Thank you
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As with every other year, I reflect back on the events and people in my life in the last year, more recently further back than that. I’m thinking about where God has taken me and where WE may be going. However, this is the first time I’ve ever considered summing up a year in one word…oh my! My first thought was, how?!
My second thought was a “simple human suggestion” that popped into my “simple human mind”…..”roller coaster”….then I counted and realized that’s 2 words. ; )
Reading this post, so many words popped out, and fittingly so. It made me think about it over the last couple days.
It wasn’t until my New Years Eve mornings reading, which included Ecclesiastes 3:11, that the all encompassing word for my year popped into my head…
Purpose.
God’s purpose(plan) for my purpose.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized how appropriate this word is. This year, I truly reflected on challenges, events and people God put in my life,2-5 years ago, more than I ever have, and on the challenges, events and people over this past year. I saw parts come together of His process for His purpose for me which lead to my purpose for His purpose for others. Ephesians 2:10
All I can say is it leaves me in awe and wonder of my Savior and my Creator!
Of course, I will never know God’s complete plan for me while still roaming this planet, but I can understand parts of it and continue to learn more of it…looking forward to that….that’s called Wisdom. Prov 1:1-3
A.M., I believe this post was your purpose for the day. Made me think differently and made me thankful. Well done !
Songs
Million little miracles
Promise Land
For the New Year
Numbers 6:24-26
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SJ, thank you so much for sharing this with me! How encouraging to know that this post was a blessing to you, even if only in a small way. God’s plans and purposes for each one of us are so unique and beautiful. Ecclesiastes 3:11 sums it up so perfectly. Thank you again for sharing! Your comment brightened my day so very much.
(My apologies for the delay in my response. I have been sick, which has made me fall a little behind here on the blog.)
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