A New Year's Toast

"If you are going through hell, keep on going before the devil even knows you are there."

Written by Dave Berg, Sam Tate and Anne Tate.  Performed by Rodney Atkins

"If you are going through hell, keep going."

Winston Churchill

"May you be in heaven five minutes before the devil knows you are dead."

Irish Proverb

(The first quote is from the most popular country song of 2006 by Rodney Atkins  It was composed by combining the other two quotes or sayings and making them into a great song.)

2014 was not a good year for the Selmon family.  Since we got married twenty-two years ago, we have only had two years where we stayed up to mid-night on December 31 to wave good-bye to a past year with such gusto.  Those years were 2014 and 2000, which was marked by both a huge apartment fire and the sudden death of my father.

Sometimes, when you are going through hell, all you can do is keep on going.  I know this much for sure, 2014 is gone, and we are glad!  We have survived by continuing to walk forward.  I praise God for His faithfulness through the midst of a year from hell.

In the end of December, my wife recommended I write a farewell to 2014 and a welcome to 2015 post with this theme.  I was in a place of writer's block, so it is coming to you a couple of weeks late.  Still, the feeling is there.

 Good-bye yucky year.  Good-bye a year wandering through hell itself.  Hello a New Year filled with promise and hope.

May the Lord bless 2015.  May His presence, guidance, and grace lead us onward.  

PS.  This is also my 600 post.  Amazing amount of postings.  I began the blog to force myself to write.  Now, I find myself writing other projects.  May 2015 be the year these projects come to life by working to completion.