I’ve literally forgotten to write for multiple days now. I was mad at myself when I realized this fact this morning. However, in the great scheme of life, there’s no reason to beat myself up over this.
There have been times in my life when I did wrong and feeling guilt and sorrow for it was appropriate. God, in God’s mercy, has loved me through those times and forgave me. Where would I be without God’s mercy?
I’m grateful for those who have served in our military on behalf of all the rest of us. This includes my Dad, brother-in-law, and nephew included in this great group of men and women, along with numerous friends in my life past and present. My heart is full when I think of all that each of you have given.
My heart was full after I had two baby boys. I had no idea it could make room for loving another baby. God knew differently.
The unexpected gift of a baby girl brought so much to my life, to all our lives in this little family. What a gift! I’ve been thanking God for her for 24 years now💗
One thing is for sure-I’m not used to writing a blogpost every single day. Regardless of that fact, my heart is turning towards gratefulness even when I’ve forgotten to write.
Yesterday was Election Day. I forgot to write but my heart was feeling thankful for freedoms in my life. The freedom to vote, yes, but in general, the freedom to choose given to me by my Creator God.
God could have created me with a predetermined path of only doing what God wanted me to do. Instead, when the Trinity decided to make male and female, they decided to give us free will. God didn’t want mere puppets. God wanted created people to choose to love and follow God. The Creator wanted a relationship with me, with each of us.
So, I’m grateful for choices and freedoms given me to choose. I chose God when I was a child and have made definitive choices to follow Christ and the Spirit several specific times in my life, as well as choosing Love every day as much as I can in my human weaknesses.
I pray I never take all my freedoms for granted.
Today I’m sharing a piece from someone else who is so respected in the faith communities of the world. I share because I am so thankful for the lifegiving relationships and times of fellowship that I’ve been blessed to have in my life over the years. As Buechner says in this article, those who bring life to us are the true saints in this world:
I’m very thankful for my large extended family. In particular this evening, I love all my nieces and nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great-greats.
I’ve been privileged to be an aunt since before I was even conceived. One of my nephews was two years older than me. Therefore, being an aunt is my longest standing aspect of my identity, and I’m grateful for that.
It’s such a precious part of my life to get to love on all the little ones that come into our family. My older nieces and nephews were so much closer to my age that they seemed more like cousins/siblings/friends. Their children and their children’s children bless my heart every time they greet me with a hug, even the ones who have become teens and are slightly embarrassed to be hugged 😌.
Thank you God for the honor of being an aunt in this crazy, wonderful family of mine! ♥️
“Some people grumble because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses.” Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
I’m spending November intentionally focused on thankfulness. I do love Thanksgiving, and not really because of the food. I’ve tried to make this month have gratitude at it’s center ever since my kids were little.
So really, being thankful is most often an intentional choice and very often it is simply a matter of one’s perspective, switching from looking at a circumstance one way so that you can see the positives instead.
The quote I’m sharing is one example. Another would be that I’m thankful for needing to rake again so I can get in some good cardio, OR, I’m thankful for all the leaves in my flower bed because they will protect my plants over the harsh winter.
I wasn’t always a glass half full kind of person. It took a very dear friend to help me turn my perspective around. There are still times I am tempted to think of the negative, but I fight against it actively. I’m so grateful for a persistent friend who impacted my life so positively!
What are some things in your life that you could grumble about today? Can you take a different look at those things and come up with something for which to be grateful?
Some of my biggest blessings in life are my 3 children, and today I’m especially thankful for our middle child as it’s his 26th birthday.
The meaning of his name, Noah, is rest. He did bring a calm into our lives when he was born. I was so grateful he was such a good baby!
Today, I continue to feel blessed to be Noah’s mom. I’m proud of who he is and the man he’s becoming as he seeks to help others, especially children , living it out this year in Spain teaching ESL. Thank you God for Noah’s life.
I’m turning towards November with my thoughts concentrated on thankfulness. My plan is to post everyday. To begin, I simply want to express how thankful I am for Fall, for colors, for all the birthdays in our family, for leaves that crunch and apples and cinnamon and all that Fall brings….
My husband and I love to decorate for Fall, and our yard just seems to cooperate right along with us in our decorating. Here are some pictures to try to express the beauty:
No one has the exact experiences or traits as any other one person. The closest any person can come to having the same set of traits and experiences as anyone else is in the case of identical twins. Nature and nurture considered, circumstances and situations, personality types and mental capacities, every little nuance in each individual’s life means that it is pretty near impossible for anyone to be able to fully understand where someone else is coming from when they live, react, make choices, and journey through life’s ups and downs.
All that being said, no individual can pass judgement on someone else by comparing their circumstances and actions to one’s own. We can have a level of empathy from going through very similar situations at times, and some people have an empathic ability that can truly feel what someone else is feeling and sit with them in that feeling, even if that empath hasn’t truly experienced the other’s same set of troubles or sorrows. But, beyond that empathy, we don’t , in this life, truly know the other person’s nuances of experiences, character traits, family situations, reasons for choices, and so on.
Therefore, how can anyone assume to grasp what another is feeling and suffering and then purport to exclaim that the one who is struggling shouldn’t need to do so if they would just choose to live life the way that the other person, the one who is judging, has lived? How can any person make a blanket statement that generalizes the circumstances of another, or a group of others, casting judgements, stating opinions, and saying that those others need to be doing life differently, better, handling the blows of life more like the one who is making the generalizations?
Until we reach eternity and know as we are known, we would be wise to sit and listen to others, to consider their stories and the nuances of their lives, finding connections, yes, but reveling in the differences, learning from the varieties of perspectives of every person whom we meet. Welcoming each other in and all of our stories to be told is the essence of intellectual hospitality, and really, just plan ole hospitality. God ultimately made us for union with God and with one another, but the fullness of that reality will not be met until the other side of our current life as we know it. From this moment forward until we are beyond death and dwelling in the forever after, each of us as individuals can only reach towards unity if we are willing to forego our preconceived notions of how others “should” act and react, and then open ourselves to learning all we can of each other’s differences, the depths of the beauty and mystery found in each person’s unique minority.
PIECES 