Skip to main content

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed and Breathing

This week I tried to write out the things I am thankful for each day and it has made such a difference in my perspective. The fear, sadness and all those other negative things that I have been feeling were just annihilated by the realization that I have been blessed beyond measure. So, I decided to try and change my way of dealing with the sadness/fear moments. When they hit me, I’m going to try to stop and be thankful for something.

Here’s my short list of the things I am thankful for:

-I’m thankful for daylight savings because my runs just got that much warmer and happier.


-I’m thankful for these guys (my brothers, sister-in-law and parents) for the way that they have loved my through a lot of my stuff, the years I was crazy with school and all the times I stole their toothbrushes.








-I’m so grateful that my parents planted a deep desire to serve other people in each of our hearts, that they taught us to start by serving each other, and that they encourage us to listen to people during conflict.

-I’m so blessed by the people I get to work with at the church, especially my boss, our team, and all the precious kiddos.

-I’m grateful for the great outdoors, for rock climbing, hiking, mountains and the ocean. Whew! It amazes me how beautiful the world is!!!





-I am so amazingly thankful for these two, the girls who have really known me for 11 years now, and who have chosen to stick with this friendship even when it is work. They are my laundry ladies, prayer partners, and accountability. They have dried my tears and belly laughed with me. What a joy it is to have them.


-I am thankful for perfect beach days and for my Gemma jam and Sharkey.
 
-I am grateful for the adventures that I have been able to have, for the enormity of God’s love for the world, and for the many friends that I have made along the way.

-I continue to be blessed by the way that God provides for me, whether it was how I expected that provision to come or not. And I am grateful for the reminder that I am a part of something bigger than myself, which means that it doesn’t have to happen MY way to happen at all.

-I’m so grateful for the huge community, the blanket of people who know and have known me, those who helped me to grow and fed me encouragement.

Seriously, I’m overflowing here guys. I can’t describe what has just happened in my heart as I wrote out this list and put up these pictures. I’m sure there are people and things here that I have forgotten to mention. I really do have THAT much to be thankful for. But, every single time I have stopped to be thankful this week I have felt God’s pleasure. It’s like He’s saying, “Yes, that’s right. I gave these things to you. I love to give good things to my children.” He is taking pleasure in the things that bring me to life.


He’s doing that for you too, can you hear Him?

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Home Visit in the Mountains

Two physical therapist and a nurse on a home visit, in a field. Feli our Quechua translator, Tajel and Stephanie (PTs) and our patient. He was paralyzed at the age of 14 and is wheelchair bound. We evaluated him under a tin roof while it was raining. Then his aunt brought us hand made cheese and toasted corn. The family farm, chakra (in Quechua) The cute donkey After our home visit we walked through Quinua Pampa a city up at 10,000 ft.
4 comments
Read more

I pick my boogers, therefore I GO

When I was unemployed and still trying to figure out what direction my life supposed to take, I spent a lot of time reading blogs. I don't know why I typed that sentence in past tense. I'm not currently employed within my profession, I will probably always be trying to figure out what direction to take, and I still  spend a lot of time reading blogs. This week I was reading one of my favorite writers, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, when I came across something that was written by Jamie's husband, whom she likes to call "El Chupacabra." This post is called "Therefore GO" and can be read by clicking here. El Chupacabra points out that the verbs "to go" or "to come" appear more often in the Bible than any of the typical Christianese verbs (eg. to love, to pray, to worship etc...). El Chup talks about how our story is a story of movement. God doesn't usually pick a person out of the mass of humanity and then tell them to stay...
3 comments
Read more

(Some) Things Are Different Now

Well, so a few things have changed this summer. One, I had another birthday, and two, I moved across the country. You know, not that big of a deal. I would love to tell you all about this in a much deeper and profound kind of way but I think that will have to wait for another day. Instead this will be a kind of show and tell. I tried to write in my journal the day after my birthday and this is what happened… For those who can't read indecipherable handwriting, that says "can't write date, sign of aging?"  When I told Future Husband about this, he laughed and said, “But that happens to you all the time.” Which is true, I have some kind of dyslexia that causes my brain to substitute inappropriate numbers and words into writing and conversation when I’m tired. I think that’s a thing. We will just say that it’s a thing, ok? Future Husband also laughed when I told him cheerily a day later, “Today I actually LIKE being older!” I...
2 comments
Read more