2013 in review

At the end of every year I always look forward to reading articles written about the "Best of" movies, TV shows, books, music for that given year.  I tried listing my favorite movies of 2013, and I had a hard time remembering what I saw ("Skyfall", "Undefeated", "Silver Linings Playbook" - no, those were in 2012). When I finally came up with a list of 7 movies I did see last year, they were hardly memorable enough to a make a "Best of" list, although I enjoyed seeing these movies with my family as my girls really liked these movies:
- Parental Guidance
- Despicable Me 2
- Frozen
And the movies I saw with Cindy:
- The Way Way Back
- Gravity
- Captain Phillips
And, I saw one other movie (solo) - Metallica Through the Never

This morning I was on Goodreads and discovered that I actually read 12 books in 2013:
 Books I read in 2013 

I've never really been an avid reader but in the past couple of years I've grown to enjoy reading in my daily quiet time.  Of these books, I'd say Randy Alcorn's "Heaven" and "Praying Circles Around Your Children" ("quick-read" version of Mark Batterson's "The Circle Maker") were the most memorable.  The most disappointing was "Baseball as a Road to God" (didn't even finish), and most educational were: "Parenting Beyond Your Capacity", and "The Five Love Languages of Children".



Here are my other "Best of 2013":

TV Shows:
- The Blacklist (NBC)
- The Americans (FX)
- Homeland (Showtime - although Season 3 was a letdown from the first 2 seasons)

Concerts:
- Rush (had to drive to Nashville; first time seeing Rush live since seeing them in TX in '97; their last show in Memphis was in '92!)
- Shinedown at Mud Island
- Third Day, Josh Wilson, Colton Dixon at Hope Church (the girl's first concert!)
- Steven Curtis Chapman, Laura Story, Jason Gray at Hope Church

Sporting events attended:
- The Grizzlies playoff run was most memorable.  I went to one game in each of the 3 playoff series:
Sat 4/27/13:  Game 4 of the Clippers series - won and tied the series at 2-2
Sat 5/11/13:  Game 3 of the Thunder series - won to take a 2-1 series lead
Mon 5/27/13: Game 4 of the Spurs/Western Conference finals - lost the game and series, but it was awesome to be there and be a part of the standing ovation for best season in franchise history.
- On the night before we returned home from our Mission Trip to Mexico, we stayed in downtown San Diego across from Petco Park so I was able to attend the Padres-D'Backs game on 6/14/13.  Love this ballpark and it was a great night for baseball.
- Astros-A's series over Memorial Day wknd (5/25-27/13).  I returned to Houston for 3 games at Minute Maid Park; it was my first time back in this park in 6 years.  I've been fortunate enough to take a  baseball trip each year (with the exception of 2011) for the past 10 or so years and I look forward to these each summer!

Prayer for 2014

The new year brings new commitments and a fresh start on goals and desired outcomes I have for my personal life and for my family.  Towards the end of 2013, I reflected often on how I might be able recharge my daily devotional time and engage with God on a more consistent and deeper level.  Oftentimes my daily quiet time feels like I'm just going through the motions, or my mind is on the day ahead, or I'm more focused on hitting the gym or heading out for a run to start my day.  I'm thankful God has transformed my heart and given me a passion to meet with Him daily in the still of the early morning (long gone are the days when I dreaded setting my alarm, now I look forward to setting it for 4:30a!)  Being the structured person that I am, I found myself looking forward to beginning a new Bible reading plan for 2014.  Two years ago, I ran across this 2-year Bible reading plan which I blogged about on New Year's Eve 2011.

This year, I'm looking forward to reading "Through the Bible Through the Year" by John Stott which was recommended to me by my friend/pastor Robbyn Abedi.

It's not your typical Bible reading plan with daily selected passages, rather this book is outlined in 3 parts (of 4 months each, with daily readings centered around a weekly theme covering the whole biblical story):

• Part 1: Creation to Christ
• Part 2: Christmas to Pentecost
• Part 3: Pentecost to Parousia (yes, I had to look this word up; Parousia = Christ's Second Coming)

My prayer is that this resource will launch me into a new approach to reading the Bible this year and awaken my soul daily as I open God's Word with anticipation and expectation that He will meet me and I will feel His presence daily.

Another resource I'm looking forward to reading daily is the new First15 from Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.  I have been receiving Jim Denison's daily devotional emails for 10+ years and would highly recommend to anyone to subscribe.

Happy New Year!