Thursday, November 3, 2011

Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to talk and pray with my sisters. This is not something that we have made a regular pattern out of, but we took some time to do it tonight and it was so good! Even though at points I was convicted, it was such a neat opportunity and something that needs to become more of a habit! I'm also thankful that last night my wonderful friend called from Alaska and we were able to talk, share, and pray for one another. It was just so encouraging :) So overall, I'm thankful for the body of Christ tonight and people that God has put in my life to encourage me and pray for me.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday- October 31, November 1-2

So due to a bit of laziness on my part, here is Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday :) On Monday, our family went to a Hallelujah Party for Halloween. It was lots of fun. It was a great time for our family to hang out! I'm thankful for that time! On Tuesday, I began my second job! I am now a personal assistant for a 9 year old with down's syndrome. His mom was my freshman basketball coach in high school and his older sister was on the team. It was such a sweet time just playing games on the ipad and playing P-I-G and Knock out in the driveway. I'm thankful for this job with this sweet boy and the ability to reconnect with this family. Now Wednesday, Today was a great day for me! I babysat for a new family this afternoon. It was a great babysitting time with two really sweet kids! Then tonight was the kids' club at church. It went really well tonight. The kids sat and listened to the story so well. It was a really great 20 minutes with the kids! Praise the Lord for such a sweet time!

Saturday, October 29 and Sunday, October 30

First of all, Saturday was our first snow fall of the year. Although they called for 4 inches we got about a 1/4 inch ;) Welcome to Washington! And of course, we choose to do a month's worth of grocery shopping at Costco during the first snow of the season. Crazy! So I'm definitely thankful for the wonderful cashier that got us in and out of line very quickly :) I'm also thankful for the opportunity of running into my freshman basketball coach(It is so crazy to think that that was 8 years ago!) and her family. I might now be able to work an extra day as a personal aide to her son with downs syndrome. It would be a wonderful opportunity! Now for Sunday! Today was a great day! Started off with church and then a visit from our grandparents! I'm a Sunday School teacher on Sunday mornings during the service, but on a every-other-week schedule. This week I was able to sit in church and God just really spoke to me through the sermon! So blessed! The sermon was from Mark 8-The healing of the blind man at Bethsaida. Here is the story: "Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. 23 So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” 25 Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly." I particularly love verses 22-23. Here the blind man is brought to Jesus by his friends for a healing touch. But in verse 23, he received a touch he did not expect. Instead, of being healed in an instant, Jesus took the man's hand and led him out of town. I love this so much! Instead of just healing the man on the spot, Jesus leads him by the hand. This took an incredible amount of trust for the blind man. Recently, I have felt a lot like this blind man. Unsure of God's leading and of His plans, but the Lord has not chosen to cure my unknowing but to gently lead me out by the hand. This verse puts a beautiful picture in my mind of Jesus taking my hand(yes, me the blind man) and gently leading me out. Not leading me out to all the answers, but leading me out to press more into Him. I also love that Jesus didn't choose to heal him completely the first time, but required Him to push in further to Him in order to see clearly. It's only when Jesus made him look up that his vision was restored and he saw clearly! I'm so thankful for the Lord's gentle leading! Even when it's not what we expect, it only causes us to press into Him deeper, look into His face, and see clearly!

Friday, October 28, 2011

So today is Friday! It was the sort of Friday that when I got off of work this afternoon I felt like breaking out in It's Friday, Friday. Gotta get down it's Friday! I know. I need new tunes ;) But tonight, I am thankful for a wonderful relaxing evening with my family. I even watched a movie tonight which I haven't done in a long time :) But I am thankful for low-key Friday nights and a family to spend them with :)

Wednesday, October 26 and Thursday, October 27

So for the first time of what I believe will be many, I skipped a day. So now, I will blog 2 days in one! So for Wednesday, work was cancelled so I got to stay home all day until church. Unfortunately, I'm quite disappointed in the lack of productivity of the day. I hands down did not use the time given me efficiently. It also was a day where I missed my friends terribly. It was one of those days where facebook and texts were just not cutting it. So yesterday, I went to bed very thankful that His mercies are new every morning! He doesn't use our faults and failings against us, but stands ready to forgive and offer new mercies with the morning light! Now onto Thursday. Oh my goodness, this day did not start out right. It started with banging my elbow hard on my bed frame, getting frustrated about a missing check, and lack of time. When I got on facebook this morning before work, I found a friend's blog talking about her experience with the same sort of morning(except she walked into a door frame;). This was the verse she posted! “…since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are - yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16. This ministered to me so much throughout the day! You know what? His grace was right there and I thoroughly enjoyed work and really just felt a complete peace about being where God wants me right now! I am so thankful for running across that blog this morning and being pointed in the right direction. For God's peace, mercy, and grace, I am most thankful! So for honesty's sake, as I am sitting here posting these wonderful things that I am thankful for, I am struggling to be thankful. The last few days have just been very hard knowing that for now, I believe the Lord would have me to be here and I have peace about that(as I said above), but all of my bestest buddies and friends live in other states. It's sometimes just really hard to have a great time with family, a great time at work, and then talk to friends online and start missing them all over again. So, this is all to say, Please pray for me that I would be thankful for the friendships that I have and thankful even for the distance.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Today, I am thankful for many things! First of all, I am thankful for the current Bible Study I am doing with my mom and sisters at our church. We are reading the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan and studying the Holy Spirit! It has been so challenging especially regarding complete surrender and obedience to the Holy Spirit which is definitely something I need to work on. Daily! Tonight, we were discussing how the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for the common good and edification of the saints. Francis Chan encourages the reader to pray each time you come into groups of believers, "Lord, by your Holy Spirit help me to minister to the people in the group." I was challenged. I definitely look at the work of the Holy Spirit as something big and in the forefront and forget that loving the people right there in front of you is the work of the Holy Spirit as well. It got me to thinking how thankful I am for one of my very closest friends. I am thankful that we can be honest with one another and although she lives over 5,000 miles away pray for one another and keep each other accountable(the best we can). It is such an encouragement to share fellowship with one another through the love of Jesus. This Bible study has also encouraged me to consider daily Godly living as a work of the Spirit. Because it is! In our fallen state, the way the Lord would have us to live and the things He calls us to do are impossible. BUT the Holy Spirit provides all the strength, resources, and anything else we need to complete the task. This just reminded me of one of the simple everyday images of the work of the Holy Spirit. There is a family I know that recently added 3 older children to their family of five. The addition of these precious children added more medical issues/bills and many hard parenting days. The things that many of us would easily say no thank you to. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, this family has tackled the hard task before them and has been blessed for it! And the kids are blessed by it too! It is a blessing to know them and watch them live by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Today was a great Monday! I was able to get to work on time, work a few extra hours, take M and A to a birthday party, and just hang out tonight. Today, I am particularly thankful that I am going to get a few more babysitting jobs over the next few weeks. Although babysitter is not necessarily the job title I want, it is what God is using to provide for my needs and help me to bless the community. I am also super blessed to that my little buddy from Alaska who had his foot amputated is doing great! First wound check today and everything looks great! He is even back to school this week! God is good :)