Tammy's Testimony

Since I don't just want to repeat my testimony from last year, you can read it here to get the background scoop :)

This past year has been a tremendous year of growth, attributed directly to starting and participating in this blog and all that was involved in that. I had never spent more time in the Word in my life, nor had I ever spent that much time studying it, not just reading it.

Probably the biggest thing I learned this past year was how little I had previously understood the holiness of God.

I think this is a danger common to those of us who were blessed to grow up in Christian homes. It is easy to become a little Pharisee - comparing yourself (who only commits "little" sins like tattling on your sister or lying to your mom) to real sinners (who commit "big" sins like adultery, theft and murder) and thanking God that you're not like them. Perhaps only sub-consciously. But it's there.

I know it was there in me.

The truth is, it is only when we grasp the reality of God's holiness, it is only when we understand the depth of God's absolute intolerance for sin of any kind, it is only when we allow ourselves to dwell on the fear of God and His wrath, it is only when we acknowledge how truly undeserving we are, it is only then that we will truly be able to grasp the extravagance of His love, the depth of His forgiveness, that His grace truly is amazing and that His mercy is undeservedly limitless.

The song What Do I Know of Holy? by Addison Road became almost like my theme song this past year as it spoke directly to my heart and what I was learning this year.

This past 15 months I have also been walking alongside my best friend through a very dark valley in her life and it's been a time where I've needed discernment like never before. I know that the fact that these two things occurred during the same year is not a coincidence, and I praise God for doing this work in my life when it would bless my friend the most.

In saying that, I have in no way arrived as a Christian. In fact, the more I learn the more I realize how far I have to go.

Now that my habit of reading the Bible daily is pretty ingrained into my life, I want to work on my prayer life and making that more consistent. Once that is firmly headed in the right direction I would also like to work on memorizing the Word (why do we preach that to our children and stop doing it as adults?!), not sure if that will happen this year yet or wait till the next. Baby steps though!

I am also really looking forward to seeing what new and different things we learn as we through the Bible again. I am so appreciating all your different perspectives and am excited to see what God is going to do this year!