Waving goodbye to 2018

Friends, 2018 has been a momentous year that flew by oh-so-quickly! So many lessons were learned - so many gifts and opportunities were savored; and to be honest, too many things trickled through my hands that should have been caught.

You, too?

At the end of each year, I love to use a very vital tool; reflection, which is one of the best ways I know to ingrain lessons learned on my psyche.

In other words, stop and ask questions. What worked? What bombed? What can I do more of to bring happiness to my life? What can I avoid to reduce stress? If I don't face these answers to these questions, I'm doomed to repeat over and over what has not worked.

This post will be a two-parter since there is so much to consider. I'm hoping as I muse about the things in my life, you will think about the things in yours. Perhaps what I learn about myself will help you. Perhaps you'll see something pop out at you and you can share to help me. We're in this thing together.

Today's offering will discuss the Journey's top blog-posts of the year. I'm always conscious of the limited time everyone has for reading blogs. It's an honor anytime one of you stops by the Journey to read my humble offering. I don't take that lightly. I want to offer things people want to read.

In the past, I usually will show the two most viewed and commented posts for each month. This year, in order to not make the post too long (I've already rambled a bunch) I will just give you the post I think was most effective for each month.

In January, my most read post was about my One Word for 2018, Press.

February's post is actually a reflection piece, What I Learned this Winter.

March and April found me busily writing for the A-Z challenge. My theme was Amazing Love from A-Z examining the attributes of God's Love. The most popular posts from the series was on His Quieting, Victorious and Wonderful love.

All too soon, May dropped by. How appropriate my Mother's Day piece, Motherhood Molds You was the top post for the month.

Along came June and I had fun writing an old-school blogging post, Six Quirky Things. (How come we don't write posts like that anymore?)

In July, I introduced Morning Pick-Me-Ups. Morning pick-me-ups were my attempts to brighten your journey with uplifting thoughts based on scripture.

August saw me writing about the Anniversary of the day I gave my life to Christ.

In September, I wrote about Summer Lessons. I thing I had learned was I enjoyed writing fiction. Since I had considered myself a devotional writer, it was a surprise to me!

October was the month I participated in the Write 31 Days challenge and picked this time as a the perfect time to launch a fictional serial entitled Angel on Assignment:  The Book of Morgan. You can find links for the entire series here.


In November, I introduced Weekly Check-Ups since reflection-type posts seem to be helpful. I established an editorial calendar for the first time: Mondays:  Weekly Check-Ups, Wednesdays: Fictional piece, and Fridays: Either I would participate with the Five Minute Friday community, OR the Friday's Fave Five writers.

Then in December, I went on hiatus; but scheduled updated posts from my 2012 advent series, Because He Came. Short but sweet, these devotional thoughts pack a punch of scripture followed by the realization, "Hey! I only have this blessing because He came and dwelt among men!" He brought healing with Him seemed to be the most widely read of the devotions.

I will be featuring over in my side column, under "Blast from the Past" some of the other 2018 favorites.

Tomorrow will be part 2 of my end-of-the-year reflections. Hope you can join me!

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What about you? What types of posts do you think are most needful? Did you enjoy 2018's posts?

Again, thanks so much to everyone who has visited the Journey. May your spiritual travels this year bring you much success!

I'm linking up with the community at Porch Stories.