Sweet Thankfulness

With yet another Thanksgiving just a day or so away, I've decided to sit and contemplate just what I am thankful for. Sure, there are all the usual and truly wonderful things that I'm thankful for everyday like my precious husband and our children, my family and loved ones, that all of our needs are met (and even exceeded, in this country!) like our home and belongings, our good health and vitality, even the food that will be on our table this Thanksgiving day, and most of all for the Supreme Savior who died and rose again for us all. I know, I could go on and on, but you get the general idea.

I'm thankful that I can make mistakes and still be forgiven. I'm thankful that I'm staring my 40th birthday right in the face, and I'm not nearly as screwed up as I used to be! I'm thankful that I can sing and praise the One who made me. I'm thankful that each moment can be a brand new, white-as-snow beginning for me.

The Lord loves us so lavishly. He wants each and every one of us to return to Him...there He is holding His arms open like a Daddy to a child. Run. Just run like you've never run before! With all the wild abandon and excitement and expectation you can muster!

I'm thankful that at any moment, I can run into those ever-loving, ever-waiting arms and be home and free at last, knowing that one Perfect day, I'll never be OUT of those arms again, but safely tucked inside them for Eternity!

What are you thankful for?

Humble Pie

I was just wide awake at 4 a.m. this morning, and I felt the Lord stirring me to meet with Him in His word. I feel like I got a bit of a Heavenly spanking. Though this is never pleasant, it's so necessary. I found that the Holy Spirit kept bringing to my mind my precious and precocious three year old, and my shortcomings in training her. I'm so impatient with her, yet the Lord is so SUPREMELY patient with me. Well, here's where the humble pie bit comes in! As I was on my knees, my tears falling to the floor as I ran into the Lord's open arms, my little Wren came to my mind and I determined to (with the Lord's help and ONLY by His grace and provision) be more patient with her. To pay more attention. To be easier on her when she disobeys (which anyone will tell you is a zillion times a day!), to hold her close more often than I do, and tell her how lovely and special and precious she is to me and to Jesus. Just to be intertwinded with her heart so that I can hold it in my hand as the fragile thing that it is.

Oh, it all goes by in a blink. Truly. I don't want to look back when Wren is grown and regret that my heart was not inclined to her as it should have been.

So often as a parent, I get too fixated on my own "issues" and I'm not as present with my children as I really should be: as they deserve me to be. I can do nothing without the Lord, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It is a choice to call on Jesus. To refuse to parent (or anything else I set out to do, for that matter) in my own strength, but to CHOOSE to allow the Spirit of Truth and Wisdom to speak and act and live and breathe through my very life. Sometimes for me, the choice to step aside and let the Lord do His mighty and gentle work is one of the hardest for me to make.

I prayed that the Lord would show me and help me, and above all things, NOT to leave me the same.

"He that has started a good work in me is faithful to complete it."

Crazy, blessed days!

"This is the day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

It's Monday. Again.

As each new work week dawns (and the only reason I refer to it as a work week is because my precious husband has to go back off to work!) I try to have a better attitude about Monday. It's not so much that I dread Monday itself. I think I dread all of the expectations that each new Monday holds. I really would rather have my husband here at home with the kids and me all day, so that's the first bummer of Monday for me. I really would like to get my lazy body out of bed earlier to get in an invigorating work out. I really would like to have prepared a lesson plan for school with my kiddos rather than flying by the seat of my pants. I really would have liked to have finished the laundry over the weekend and had my meals planned out for the week.... you get the point.

There's a bit of comfortable familiarity to it all, though, and one thing I can always hold fast to is that my Precious Lord is in the midst of it all with me. In my weariness. In every season.
So no matter what, the one thing I am this Monday morning in the chaos of fussy, teething babies, mess-making toddlers, hormones, and preparations for lasagna dinner...is thankful and Eternally blessed!