Day Twenty: I'm thankful for the beauty of creation

 

 I'm housesitting this incredibly beautiful house this week. And this morning decided that I was going to take some time and just sit outside. It's was so beautiful. It makes me wish I lived somewhere I could do this every morning. I love the beauty of the creation around us. There is something that is peaceful and calming about being around nature. We take it for granted all the time and today I want to stop and acknowledge it.

Today, I'm thankful for the beauty of creation.

Day Nineteen: Thankful for lots of little things.....

I'm sitting here staring at this screen trying to think of what to write about and be thankful about today. It shouldn't be this hard and all that is coming to mind is the little things that put a smile on my face....so today....

I'm thankful for the little things.

Like sunsets behind the mountians

random text messages

 amazing summer lightening storms

 sweet forehead kisses

baby giggles

 the feeling of knowing adventure is around the corner

Conversations that stay with you

good hugs

smiles shared between friends that say a thousand words

phone calls just to say I miss you

real letters/cards that come in the mail

soft and clean sheets

pillows

hot tubs

frozen yogurt

coffee

hot tea on a sore throat

and the list could go on and on

I usually take all the above for granted but they all mean the world to me (some more then others of course).

Day Eighteen: I'm thankful for little blessings

Sometimes it's the little things in life that brighten your day and week. And then sometimes it's the little larger, random things that brighten your week as well! This week I got a call from our local radio station that I won a competition to be apart of a little exclusive performance by the band Parachute. This my favorite song by them below.....

Swoon. Yes. Love this song. So today......

I'm thankful for the little blessings in life.

It's things like these that I feel like God is showing me his love and pursuance of me. I know that probably sounds slightly cheesy but I'm okay with that. It's between me and God and no else needs to understand. But I am thankful for the little blessings that He throws my way to show me he loves me.

Day Seventeen: I'm thankful for Jonny Best

Ah! I love chocolate. Living in Northern Ireland spoiled me for life though.

I hate American chocolate now. And this week I received a lovely little package that had chocolate from the UK in it!

And lovely little happy 8th birthday card. Not because it's my birthday but because my friendship with the person who sent this is almost eight years old.

So today I'm thankful for Jonny Best

I love this boy! He is one of my favorite people ever. We met during Summer Madness in Belfast and proceed to do Streetreach together. He was 17 and my little blessing of encouragement. God used him so much in my years in Northern Ireland to bless me, encourage me and remind me that people do value who I am. He would take me on "date nights" and talk about how all guys are stupid cause they weren't asking me out. He was like the perfect little brother! I admired his desire for the Lord and how He lived his life completely sold out for him. We've kept in touch since I left and I am so so so so proud of the man that he has become. A man who loves the Lord and loves others with all he is. Who's only desire is to serve God and be where God wants him to be....no matter where that is.

I'm so blessed to have this man in my life and blessed by the way that he loves me and shows he cares about me and my life even when I'm thousands of miles away. I love him dearly and he will always be like a brother to me.



Day Sixteen: I'm thankful for the ability to be thankful

Wow. You know what amazes me is that I KNOW I have so much to be thankful for but I'm struggling with things to write. It is because I want to sound so profound and be able to write loads about it? That's lame. I should be able to just clearly state the little things I am thankful for too. So today......

I'm thankful that I can be thankful.

The ability to recognize the blessings in my life come from the work of God in my life. It's so easy to get caught up in life, what isn't there, what I don't have and what is missing in life. Instead of being focused on the blessing that shower me every day. I want to be more aware of the things I have to be thankful for than I am right now. But I am thankful that I'm aware that I have a need to be more than what I am now. :) 

Simple but good.

Day Fifteen: I'm thankful for God's love

Last night Fusion (High school ministry at my church that I work with) had a night of worship and part of the night was focused on silence. And how much how world is full noise and what would happen if we cut out the noise. Would we hear God clearer? We were given space to be quiet before the Lord and wait for Him to speak. It brought me to what I'm thankful for today.......

I'm thankful for God's love.

It sounds cheesy. I know. And it's words we say all the time. God loves you. God loves us. God loves me. But think about. Really think about what those words mean.

Sunday night as I sat on the floor in that gym asking God to speak to me. I had been dealing with several bad choices that day and feeling worthless and just being really hard on myself. I guess I expected God to want to say something like "I love you but keep going, do better next time, make better choices" and everything else along those lines. This is what I wrote in my journal later that night.

As I sat. As I sat in the silence. As I quieted my hear and wait to hear what you wanted to say to me. With recent events of I felt so broken, so beat up, so full of shame, so condemned and all you wanted to say to me was...

I love you.

that's it?!

I love you.

No words of anger? Or disappointment? Or Condemnation?

I love you.

Why couldn't I believe that was what you wanted to say to me? I asked that if that was true that the next song they play would be the song "How He Loves". Well, it wasn't the next one but was in the last set. You love me. At the deepest level you love me. Despite myself, despite my wonderings, despite my choicesm despite me...

I am loved by you. You don't hold condemnation towards me. You forgive me. Thank you. I don't deserve it. I screw up so much. Thank you. Thank you for your forgiveness and for ultimately always loving me.

Day Fourteen: I'm Thankful for my Dad (of course!)

It's Sunday. It's the third Sunday in June to be exact. And that would make today Fathers Day! So, in honor of that.....

I'm thankful for my daddy!

He is one of the significant men in my life who I know will ALWAYS be there. Growing up he always did everything he could to take care of his family and provide for us. He would do lots of little things around the house to show that he loves us. My dad's has always show his love through acts of service which growing up in the moment I don't think I understood or saw the depth of his love for us as my acts of service would not be one of my stronger love languages. But as I look back now and understand that about him.....it's very clear how much he loves us. :)

I was clearly a daddy's girl growing up. (Ok so I still am in many ways....right mom? haha). I love the pictures of when I was younger and I was always hanging on him and hugging on him. Some of my favorite memories were going on the annual birthday breakfast date with Dad and my 16th birthday dinner date (yes I still got a breakfast date that year too! haha), where he proceed to give my my purity ring and tell me all guys are slime and just to stay away from them (wish I listened to that a little more. ha.). Oh and of course he did and continues to make the typical comments about guys in my life....just like any father would. There is a picture of him and my last boyfriend standing there and Dad has gun in his hand and my ex a scared look. It was all in fun at the time. But now.....it's REALLY funny cause my Dad really did want to take a gun to him after we broke up in a way I've never seen him want to any other guy I dated. (My theory is that his intensity in that was actually because he really, really liked this guy.... haha.)

But I think one that really stands out to me was back when I was pursuing the option of going to Northern Ireland. I was 19, living at home, going to Palomar College and I had already decided I wouldn't go without my parents blessing. We'd all been talking about this for about a year and I came to the place that it was going to have to be a God thing for them to be okay with me taking a break from school. Dad took me to breakfast (I think this was a birthday breakfast but maybe not...) and he told me that I had their blessing to go and that they didn't want to stand in the way of anything God may have for me. I think that moment was significant in my mind because I know that was a hard thing for him to say and do. And in a lot of ways it was him "letting me go" to start making choices and decisions as I felt God lead me. I remember walking away thinking how much I knew he selfishly didn't really want me to go but that he loved me so much that He wanted what God wanted for me more than anything.

And still to this day my dad does little things to show his love even though I'm hundreds of miles away. For example....I went home in May and my dad did several things to make sure I had a working car for me to be able to come and go as I please. That is him loving me. He gave me $40 when I left to pay for the parking at the airport when I returned to Denver. That is him loving me. Him always telling me that if I need a loan to fix my car (or whatever) to let him know. That is him loving me. Him telling me I'm not allowed to date anyone till I finish grad school (haha). That is him loving me. Him listening to me talk about random stuff on the phone that he doesn't really care about (usually he passes me off to mom at this stage but sometimes he'll listen). That is him loving me. We live in a world where broken families and children not having involved fathers in their lives is the norm. And I am so thankful that I was blessed with one who has always been involved in my life, always loved me and always will.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!