Tag Archives: blessings

Thankful Thursday on Monday

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My heart is full of gratitude tonight so I can’t wait until Thursday:

Thank you, God, for music.  I’ve told you many, many times before, but I’m so glad you created it.  It reaches me.  It moves me.  It helps me connect with You like nothing else.

Thank you for my daughters.  I see so many little ones brought to the doctor’s office by their moms and it makes me remember the fun times I had with my girls when they were young.

Thank you that my youngest has “come back” this year.  That she lets me hug her again, lets me tell her I love her without pushing me away, and spends time with me gladly fills my heart to the very top.

Thank you for my work friends and my church family and that I’m starting to feel more at home here.

Thank you for my cats, for their little chubby, furry, lovey selves.

Thank you for this big house to live in and for leading us out from under the enormous pressure of trying to sell that house back in St. Louis for years and paying two house payments.  I think back to what that was like and realize how blessed we are now.

Thank you for who you are, for being mysterious and wonderful.  Your love and faithfulness amaze and bewilder me.

I love you, God.  Thank you!

Do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.  Hebrews 12:27 The Message

The Lord is my God!
    I will praise him and tell him
    how thankful I am. Psalm 118:28  CEV

Thankful Thursday 1 day late

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Oops, I almost forgot about Thankful Thursday this week.  It is Friday already isn’t it?  And Friday’s almost over.

I’m thankful that I feel so much more at home in my church family than I did a year ago – we were so new here last Easter.   I’m thankful for love, for people who gather to remember Jesus in taking the Lord’s supper, for hearing the story again that I’ve heard so many times but still tugs at my heart.  I’m thankful for imagination and how it helps me picture myself at the table with Jesus and his disciples; Continue reading →

Sunday

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Today I’m thankful for:

  • Another sunny, warm day with blooming redbud, pear and crabapple trees, daffodils, tulips, birds at my bird feeder (and of course my nemesis, the chipmunk) and in the little birdhouse on the wooden post in the yard.
  • Last week during church we had the opportunity to write prayers or praises on pieces of paper and attach them to a cross on the platform.  Today a woman shared enthusiastically during the service that God answered that prayer she offered last week.
  • I got not one, but two hugs from Miss Esther today at church.  (A classy, lovely, elderly friend who always makes sure to give me a hug before she leaves each Sunday.)
  • Time to plant pansies and snapdragons in pots on my back porch and hang up a wind chime, with only the sound of the birds and the occasional car driving by out front.  My outdoor chairs are cleaned off and ready for some good quiet times this spring and summer and hopefully chatting with friends.
  • Eating tacos and snacks with the people in our life group, laughing and talking about our favorite grocery stores and food.
  • Spending a couple of hours with four little boys while the adults had Bible study and prayer.
  • Swinging them on the tire swing, tossing a Spiderman Ball and Flippy Flyer, whacking trees with stick swords, and running around the green grass in the warm evening breeze.
  • Getting snuggles from a 3 year old while watching “Bug’s Life” while the boys start to quiet and settle down.  I miss those kind of times when my girls were little.  I had forgotten how nice it was.
  • Eating some strawberries dipped in chocolate.
  • Enjoying the last couple of hours of the weekend before I will happily sink into my comfy bed and sleep.

Many of the good gifts God gave me today were unexpected and came in surprising ways.  What a good Sunday.

Wise Mary Poppins

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Have you watched a movie you had watched a hundred times as a child and caught lines you never noticed before?  Or at least the meaning of those words had flown right over your head as you sat caught up in the story or what was happening on-screen?  Consider the story of Mary Poppins.  She was one wise gal and seemed to always have just the right thing to say.  You know, like “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” and “well begun is half done” and my favorite:  “Close your mouth, Michael.  We are not a codfish.”  One of the things she said in the Disney movie that I missed as a child is “Enough is as good as a feast”.   In other words – stop your grousing, be happy with what you have and don’t ask for more.

Our human nature, from a very early age, causes us to cry out “more, more!” all throughout our growing up years and sometimes on and on, even when we’re “grown ups.”

Give a child a trip to the store and they want a candy bar, too.  Give them a candy bar and they want a slushee to go with it.  Continue reading →

21 years and counting

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21 years ago today I stood in a beautiful dress, in a sun-filled sanctuary, with many happy faces watching – facing the man I knew God had chosen for me.  We confidently and happily vowed faithfulness and love to one another and as a couple, to God.  We walked out of that room as husband and wife.  It was a beautiful, sunny April day.  Surrounded by many friends and family members, we celebrated what God had given us.

There have been lots of joyful times along the way.  Lots of good memories.  Lots of laughter and blessings.  There have also been lots of challenges, troubles, obstacles, and “opportunities for growth” individually and as a couple.

Before we were married, John felt a call from God to serve full-time in ministry.  As we made our way through the years of seminary, working extra jobs, raising 3 little girls, barely making it by, and then starting our first pastorate in New Mexico, I realized God was calling me too.  He called me to stand beside John, to serve alongside Him, to use my gifts to enhance whatever John was doing.  I don’t feel like it was an accident – it was on purpose.  The call to be a pastor’s wife is real – it’s not just a role you accidentally fall into.

We’ve faced a lot together and I know there will be more in the future that requires us to pull together rather than apart, to lean on each other and on God, to pray, to wait, to be there for each other.  All of the fearful times, the sad times, the disappointing and discouraging times, dumb decisions and better ones, misunderstandings and making up times, waiting and trusting times have deepened our love for each other and strengthened us.  I wouldn’t want to face it with anyone else.  I’m so glad God gave me John.

So here’s to 21 years, Honey, and to many more.

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