Things I Am Thankful For - 2012

This year I haven't done any 'special' Thanksgiving post or post series yet. I hadn't really thought I would. It's not that I'm not thankful; I'm just not huge on doing commemorative posts simply because everyone else is.
I'm huge on being thankful! You can visit THIS page for an ongoing list of my life's simple special blessings that I treasure as gifts from my loving God.
In the past, I've written many posts on things I'm thankful for. I try to make thankfulness a year-long habit, one of my 'life's missions', if you will.

But this year I hadn't planned on posting anything specifically to acknowledge the Thanksgiving holiday.
I've changed my mind.

So much has gone on the last year or so. So much to be thankful for, and so much heart-break. It is primarily because of the heart-break that I decided it's important for me to take this opportunity and muse on some of the great things the Lord has put into my life that I dare not take for granted.

At first I was going to make a list. Then I thought I'd actually write out things.
Now I've decided to just type, and let it flow.

So, for your musement or amusement, here are a few of the many things I am thankful for this year...

Trissy sings nearly every morning she spends at the house (she often spends the night with The Grandparents to be there to help them if they need something). Before I get out of bed many mornings, I can hear her in her room, already up, softly singing a hymn or some new song we've learned. I've never mentioned it to her, but it has been such a lift on many mornings I just didn't want to get up and face the world. If you read this Trissy, here is my 'public' thank-you.

I'm thankful that my only living set of grandparents lives within hollering distance from my house. I can easily ride my bike or walk to see them. I'm thankful they are still in good enough health to live alone. I am thankful my family lives so close to them so that we can be there and care for them when they need it. Though sometimes tasks are difficult, I'm thankful for opportunities to serve them, and even the 'distasteful' jobs are not really all that bad if met with the attitude that service is a privilege, not a burden. I'm thankful for the example my mom has set as she cares for them. I've never heard her be disrespectful to them, even when a situation is frustrating. She always puts aside whatever she is doing to go help them if the phone rings and they need something. I'm thankful for my dad's example and willingness to help her and them. They aren't even his parents, yet he willingly does or helps with tasks for my grandfather that require a man's assistance. He always respects them and is gracious. I'm thankful for Trissy helping them by housecleaning, cooking, and doing other things for them when I am gone.

My family is patient with me and so gracious to allow me to 'go' and do all the things I am involved in. Two jobs, both with at least somewhat irregular schedules, Tuesday night practice with the church youth music group, leading a junior-high age small-group at church on Wednesday night, Thursday night college Bible study, and various other odds and ends on the side.

Plaid button-up shirts. I love to wear them and I love to see people in them.

The letter the Lord led me to write to Law. Even though looking back, it seems to only have made the proverbial 'recording needle' jerk, there is no doubt that it made an impact on him. He cannot wholly forget it. And I am thankful for the on-going 'Bible-verse-every-Sunday' agreement. Every week during the week, I ask the Lord to show me a verse that Law may need the message of that week, and I write it on a small piece of paper and give it to him on Sunday mornings. I am thankful it's not something I just started doing, but that he eagerly agreed to it and expects it each Sunday.
I'm thankful the Lord is patient and knows perfectly how to deal with each of His children. I'm thankful He is looking out for Law and will keep him and guide him and make him into the man He wants him to be.

I'm thankful for precious little Maxwell. What a joy. What a gift. What an unaware little comforter he is. If ever I need a tangible reminder that God answers impossible prayers, I can think of him and know it's true.

I think if I lived in the city, I would literally die of suffocation. But I don't. I live in the country, in the deep South, surrounded by cow pastures and woods. I can see the stars at night and hear the birds in the morning. I can smell the pungent fragrance of cattle and the honey-like scent of wildflowers. I can hear rain on the roof and the wind in the leaves of the trees and can see the sun rise in gold and sink in fire over the rim of the world. I eat vegetables grown in my family's garden, fruit grown on our trees, and drink pure water from our own well. My street is a dirt road and my nearest neighbor lives in a house friends built for my orphan grandfather and his siblings when they were children.
And I live in America.

My 'college' friends at church (though only a couple of us are actually still in college). How precious they are to me. Aron and Henley, Justice and Noel, Austin and Ava, Toby and Lindy, Russell, Archer, Camille, Julia, Autumn, and Landon, Oliver, and Oliver's wife, though we don't get to see those last three much. How good God is to give them to me.

I'm thankful for my laptop, and internet access. So many opportunities have opened up to me through this. Not only for my own enjoyment, but also for ministry. Blogging, Pinterest, my Etsy shop, research, journaling, doing media work for church, preparing devotionals and lessons, e-mail, website creation, photo editing, and on and on. It's like a door. And I am thankful to have a key.

The mission and church trips and events the Lord has allowed me to take part in this year. The Strength To Stand conference in Tennessee and the mission trip to the children's ranch in January. The 30 Hour Famine in April. The mission trip to Chicago in June. What memories, what blessings. I went expecting blessings, but the Lord did for me "... exceeding abundantly above all that we (I) ask(ed) or think (thought)..." in several areas. Such a treasure-trove of memories.

I'm thankful for my 'girls trio' at Victory Rd. - Lela, Piper, and Joy. I'm thankful Lela still goes to VRCA and that I still get to see and hug her every few days. I'm thankful for Piper's poised, mature, wise, fun, refreshing spirit, and for her friendship - so often I forget that she's eleven years younger than me. She is a spot of silver when the day is gray. I'm thankful for silly Joy's goofy friendship, and for the opportunity to influence her spirit to grow.

The S. family has (other than my own family) probably had the most effect on my life this year. Each member in various ways has had a significant impact on me in the past months.
Bro. S.'s firm, quiet example. His hard work ethic, his commitment to and love for his wife and children, his desire to live pleasing God. I know there is hope for America while there are still men like this alive and well.
The way Mrs. S. lives life - unhurried but purposeful. Her simple tenderhearted wisdom, her perception into the needs and troubles of others, and her willingness and efforts to help them; her old-fashioned unaffected hospitality. I want to be like that.
Archer's calm and unapologetic confidence - he does what he does (or doesn't do) because he feels like he has a good reason for doing (or not doing) it, and if you want to change him about it, you must offer his analytical mind well-presented, legitimate, logical arguments. He's a thinker, passionately compassionate, a lover of good, and one of my best friends - one of my 'adopted brothers'. There are things we don't agree on, but there is also so much I have learned from him.
Law. Dear Law. So much like me and so close to where I was at his age that it's almost scary. He is such an amazing person, and when he allows the Lord to be the one in the driver's seat, he's going to be unstoppable. His energy, his love of laughter, his fascination with going against the flow, his appreciation of optimism, his quick wit, his attraction to the stars, his desire to do good, his charisma, his loyalty to a cause. How I have prayed for/fought for him, how I long to see him become the man God wants him to be, how I love this boy, only the Lord Who loves him more knows. How I rejoice in hope.
Sweet Abigail, my 'corny joke buddy' - she knows I will laugh! I love her calm excitement, her love for good, her pretty style, her sturdy spirit, and her willingness to work hard. She's like a flower in the spring, a sunbeam in the summertime, a copper leaf in the fall, and a snowflake in the winter - the spirit of the best and most beautiful of the season. She has written me several notes over the past few months, and with each one I am reminded that younger eyes are watching how I live my life. Oh how I want to be worthy.
And Piper. Precious Piper. She defies the stigma attached to the title 'teenager'. Her perception and wisdom are startling at times. Her thoughtfulness, her sympathy, her light, her uplifting conversation, her love for simplicity and beauty and family - I never fail to be encouraged by a meeting with Piper. To talk with her, whether the conversation is silly or serious, is to be a tired traveler and to be refreshed from a shimmering stream - clear as crystal, rich as silver.
What richness they have brought to my life, what color and texture and depth. How I praise God for merging this family's path with mine.

Victory Rd. Much, if not most, of the heart-break this year has come from it. But the blessings the Lord has used it to accomplish in my life are immeasurable. I have nothing to say that could express my awe and thankfulness effectively for His gift of this church.

It is Thanksgiving morning and there is much to do, so I must be moving on. A Biblical example is always appropriate, so I will close in the style of the writer of the book of Hebrews...

And what more can I say? For the time would fail me to tell of blessings I would praise Him for; of running water and electricity, of food stored up for months ahead, of a stable family life, of access to good books and audios and even some movies, of good friends and Godly examples and family members serving the Lord on the far sides of the globe, of my own copy of the Bible in my own language and the ability to read it, of fresh breezes and thunderstorms in the summer, of hot chocolate and blankets and bonfires in the winter, of craft supplies and ideas and the satisfied feeling after finishing a project, of the sound of a rooster crowing and the friendship of a soft black kitten with a permanent curly-cue at the end of her tail: which encourage me when I'm down, thrill me when I'm happy, comfort me when I'm thoughtful, fascinate me when I'm excited, and calm me when I'm discontent. All these things and more would I name, God having provided them to reprimand my fretfulness, solace my sadness, and rejoice my thankful heart - to make me more into the Christian I should be.

SOLI DEO GLORIA! And Happy Thanksgiving, 2012.