Looking Back at 2016

For the past two years I've filled out these little printables for the new year. Gotta keep-up with blog tradition!

The two with the blue are covered for privacy

Looking Back at 2015 
Looking Back at 2014

I got these cute print-outs here.  

2016 was a hard year for us. Hard doesn't necessarily mean bad but we definitely had our fair share of cloudy skies and heavy hearts. But for all the ways that 2016 was difficult, it truly brought us closer together. We learned to lean on each other. We learned to listen and understand. We learned to show up and stand up for one another and not as two separate people but as a committed couple.

Aside from our incredibly supportive families, we also had two valuable souls who were entirely unrelated and under no obligation to counsel us through our particular circumstances. They helped us to see that what we were experiencing was not from God and we didn't need to feel obligated to remain in a harmful place. Without their guidance and continual encouragement, we'd still be in an emotionally oppressive place. I am grateful for them. They are gifts from God.

2016 brought our most difficult decision as a married couple but surely not the last. Through it all, the one thing we learned was that on the other side of pain there was incredible freedom and love.  Big changes are always scary but also incredibly powerful and can be agents of healing. Embracing temporary discomfort can lead you to a happiness waiting to be experienced.

So if you feel like you are in a dark place or have been for some time I encourage you get some help from friends, family, and outsiders. Talk about it. Believe that you deserve better and do what you can to seek it out. Don't sit in the pain and let it take over. Move forward bravely. And when you look back on those dark times, don't be bitter but treasure them in your heart. They are what make you strong.