a lot of my friends have been blogging lists of things they're grateful for. (for which they're grateful. ugh. my inner english teacher is hard to shake.) so i'm hopping on the bandwagon and creating my own.
here are ten of the things that have brought me joy in september:
1. a handsome and kind husband who is glad to be married to me even though i have pcos and may never bear children. this is a pretty big deal for a guy who has always dreamed of having a big crazy family. he got the big & crazy part ... just all bundled up in me, not spread out among 5 kids :). i am so glad he loves me. and he shows it all the time.
(tired after a long hike. not cranky. promise.)3. mark driscoll and mars hill church, who make their awesome solid teaching available free online. they make me laugh, help me learn, and bring me close to the place where God can speak to me. they even make me face the ugliness within that i try to hide, and give me a kick in the pants when i need it.
4. ann ortlund's book 'the disciplines of the beautiful woman.' it's pretty old school, but God used it to show me the beauty and necessity of being disciplined in all areas of my life ... especially in the area of my faith. thanks to the wisdom she shares, i've learned to prioritize & protect my time with the Lord - a huge blessing to my soul.
5. my new phone and unlimited texting. i love love love being able to text with patrick when we're apart. he's my favorite person ever, so being able to stay in touch with him all the time completely rocks. also, i have the cutest new ring tones. my current texting tone is "froggy night" and i'm in love with it. imagine a frog, sitting on a front porch, plucking a guitar. that's my ringtone.
6. caitlin, victoria, and chrissy. sigh. such good friends. they've made us feel SO welcome here in thunder bay. caitlin has even gotten up early to drive us around on errands, and stayed up late to do the same. she's the kind of friend you'd call when you're stranded on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at 3 in the morning ... and you'd know she'd be glad you did.
victoria, caitlin, & moi.and chrissy.
8. my kitchen. i love to cook. it makes me happy to feed people. and because i have a bar-window-pass-through thingy, i can hang out with my friends and make them food too. hurray!
9. my ... ugh, it's hard to say it, but i really am grateful for it ... job. okay okay, i don't like telemarketing. i think telemarketers are even more universally disliked than lawyers and politicians ... especially when they're doing surveys on behalf of lawyers and politicians. and i completely understand why. i'd hang up on me too. but i am grateful, because it's paying the bills and after 2 months without work, we've accumulated a lot of those. (also, i made up a superhero alter-ego, RockSolid, who can bear the brunt of telemeanness. RockSolid wears a teflon suit and everything just rolls off. :). my identity is in Jesus, and RockSolid is like my imaginary personification of that. because i'm crazy.)
10. psalm 4:8. God has kept us safe even though our neighbourhood is less than peaceful. you can check out patrick's blog for details of The Incident. basically, we were scared, there was violence, and none of it touched us. *grateful prayer.*
so there you have it. my thankfullist. make your own, send it to me, and we can all say hurray together.
xoxo.
okay, so do I write my list here?
ReplyDelete1. I'm so thankful for the love I feel for my children, each one is so precious to me, them and their spouses.
2. I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me a grand-daughter. Thankful that we're able to keep in touch through skype too.
3. I'm so thankful for Grandmaman and for the opportunity that the Lord gives me to serve by looking after her!
4. I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband. He's the most awesome man, I just cannot imagine what life would be like without him by my side - he's charming with his dimples, he's most kind, patient, super smart and I just love him to pieces!
5. I'm thankful for my good and faithful friend Claudine. She and I have probably walked enough miles together to get us to B.C. and back! JK but we've done this for years and we just never tire of each other and never run out of things to say...
6. I'm thankful for my home in the country. I love my house.
7. I'm so thankful for my kitchen and the wonderful things that come out of there sometimes.
8. I'm so thankful for my family, though we're spread apart we've bonded closer together through the media of email!
9. So, that means I'm so thankful for email too! Without it we'd be so out of touch with each other.
10. So thankful too, for facebook. I love and hate that place but what I am thankful for is the freedom to express myself and the joy of watching little babies grow into wonderful little toddlers and then sweet adorable children!
This list is probably not in order of priority but this is how it got together. Thank you Janelle for suggesting such a list. I am so thankful for the gift of you!
I LOVE YOU.
ReplyDeleteLOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!
And i am moving into your home next week.. hope that's cool.
It's so nice to read this. Sometimes I get too caught up with the things that are discouraging or overwhelming and forget to simply be thankful.
ReplyDeleteI listen to Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill church podcasts sometimes too, but don't you find him a bit extreme on things like women in ministry? Maybe I'm just biased because I am a woman in ministry.... but still, don't you find he's a bit arrogant???
i think some of his comments are definitely antagonistic, but i do admire that he supports his beliefs with scripture. i don't share all of his opinions - for example, i disagree with his take on "the shack", a book that i really loved but he thinks is blasphemous. however, i think if i was trying to find a preacher who thought the same way i did on everything, it would never happen. so i enjoy what i enjoy and pray about the rest :). like i would in any church, i guess!
ReplyDeletePoint noted... A good point too. Somehow I think it's easier to maintain that viewpoint with a pastor/leader that I have the opportunity to grow in relationship with. Something I don't have with mark driscoll. I too loved The Shack - changed everything for me. Seriously.
ReplyDelete1. Janelle, you rock.
ReplyDelete2. I laugh when I look at the times some of these comments were made. Since Mac, I think the lastest I've gone to bed is... 9:30 ;)