Losing Focus

How quickly the desire for gratitude gets lots in the everyday monotony. Lord, help me to focus on you. As a friend said this week, "Look at Him, Focus on Him." And so that is my goal, to refocus, to stay focused, especially as we go into a busy season that gets lost in materialism, I pray that I will not allow those things to steal my joy. My joy that belongs in and to my Saviour. And so I will write the words out each time, to train and to remind myself, "I am thankful for..."

#13. I am thankful for fall leave collages with two small girls.
#14 I am thankful for no throwing up in the middle of the night.
#15 I am thankful that though I am ungrateful and wretched, I can go to my Lord without fear and tell Him how I really feel.
#16 I am thankful for Friday's off. I am thankful that I work for a company that allows me to work part time from home. I am thankful that I get to be the one that sees my children grow up. (Lord, help me to remember this when I am answering the 500th question of the hour.)
#17 I am thankful for a husband who works so hard and never complains.
#18 I am thankful for the abundance, we want for nothing and have more than we ever deserve and yet most of this world goes without.

Gratitude

6. "big hugs" from little arms
7. cool fall weather
8. a husband who works hard and never complains
9. sweet tinkling of piano keys... (not in my house though, on the computer- go here http://www.aholyexperience.com and just listen, but I highly sugest you read too)
10. vendors who acknowledge questions you ask and don't ignore you
11. conversations that you never thought would happen
12. I am a redeemed, justified sinner! This one should really be first! But I was really meditating on it today.

Blessings

5. I am thankful for sunshine, wind and fall!

One Thousand Gifts

It's November and that means that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. But we have so much to be thankful for and I lose sight of that so easily most days. Ann over at A Holy Experience has issued a challenge of sorts - to start keeping a journal of our gifts, blessings, good things... and so I am accepting the challenge and hoping to journal here. Posting will be sporadic as life is sporadic, but that too I can be thankful for, that life is never boring.

1. I am thankful I am alive. Taken for granted on so many days.

2. I am thankful for my husband, his leadership, his love and his ever present patience with me.

3. I am thankful for my children, who though test me on a daily basis, are also the means of great joy, laughter and fun.

4. I am thankful for my health. Though I struggle with recurring allergy issues, my lot is quite simple and how quickly I forget that. It is not cancer (like sweet Halie) or any number of other life-challenging diseases this world serves us. I pray that I will grasp the enormousness of this blessing, for it is never truly appreciated until it is taken away.

I want to write, but I just can't find the time...

I miss blogging. I write blog posts in my head, but can never find the time to write them on "paper."

The Thorn

The Thorn by Martha Snell Nicholson
I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.