time

Golly...it's been so long since I've blogged I'm not sure I remember how;)

Suddenly, Christmas is well on it's way and a bunch of changes have packed themselves into what's left of 2013.

Where has the time gone?

This question actually brings up something I was thinking about as I sat in church last Saturday.

This year has presented me with so many challenges and changes and these things have brought me to tears way more than I'd like to admit.
Time has seemed to simply slip through my fingers, and the harder I tried to grasp on to it, the faster it went. 
Sitting in the little church pew stuffed between my two sisters, one engaged to be married in April, the other recently dating, I started wondering why time goes so quickly.
The answer hit me like a ton of bricks and I'm fairly certain I gave a little gasp because I couldn't believe how stupid I've been not to see it.

Time goes quickly because our time is short here.

This year has been tough, filled with lots of decision and trouble.
Sometimes its felt like I could just give out.
So it's like Paul was talking right to me in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
Or rather the living and active words of God entered my heart and made sense.
Everything we see around us is temporal: lasting only for a time; not eternal; passing.
Even these bodies we inhabit are passing, only the things we can't see will last forever.
So guess what that means...
this time on earth wont last forever. 
As a matter of fact, our time on earth is just a very small, slight portion of our lives.
Eternity is...well, eternal.
So why do I expect my time to just stretch leisurely on forever?
Leisure time comes in Heaven, after I've done my work here on earth.

In conclusion, I've decided to try to allow God to change me so that I remember to set my eyes on the things eternal and stop complaining that this time is going so quick.
What makes me think that something so much more amazing and brilliant isn't waiting for me once this earthly life comes to an end?
Because I've received Christ as my savior, it totally is.

I'll cherish this precious time on earth, but I will also zealously look forward to what's waiting in heaven for me.

In light of me learning to love this gift of life here are some photos that fill in the gap between my last post and now.

Me and my precious friend from summer camp at our last Breakaway. (youth conference) Senior year:(!

Steph, Abi, Katie and myself at a Granger Smith/Earl Dibbles Jr. concert this Fall. YEEYEE!

 

My sisters and I at Trick-or-Treat day at work this past Halloween. Side note - Our last name is Maske so we got masks and became "The Maske'd girls". Win.

The pumpkins we made this year! (I'm lower right with a TARDIS, Abi's middle with a YEEYEE, Brian [Lizz's fiance] is the only dude with a Superman and Lizz is working hard upper right)

 

Our cupcakes...mmm.

 

MY cupcake...ahhh:)

 

My sisters and I.

 

The gang.

 

Hey, I was seventeen. Still am actually.

 

 

Cupcakery.

 

Abi and I on my day of birth:)

xo,
Hannah Dorothy