Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Today is the day we set aside to give thanks for all we have in our lives. Giving thanks and being thankful is something we should be every day.

Personally I have so much to be thankful for. I have a husband who God has blessed me with and three incredible children. Both my parents are still alive and I have a mother-in-love who is amazing. I am blessed with a brother and a sister and many brothers and sisters by marriage. I have more nieces and nephews than I can count without sitting down and writing them all down. My church family is amazing and they never cease to amaze me. I am also blessed to have many children by “heart”, those who I have watched grow over the years and love as they are my own.

Today, in an ever-growing bad economy both Tim and I are blessed with jobs. My job is more to me than a job. I consider myself one of those rare people who truly love their jobs and the people that they work with. I can honestly say that they are more family to me than employers. Many times I have said that God plopped me down at my job because He knew how much I needed it. It has grown me in many ways and while it isn’t always easy and things are sometimes very hard, it is what I love and I believe I am right where God wants me.

I am thankful for the laughter that often fills my house. Yes, at times it can get a bit crazy around here, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Our children are only here with us for a short span of time and I want to enjoy every minute of it. There is nothing sweeter to a mothers ear than her children’s laughter. Yes, sometimes it is loud and sometimes it can be a bit much but it’s all good. I firmly believe they will look back on these days and smile and remember when their own children are their ages now how important it is to allow your home to be open to their children and their friends.

My church means so much to me. I am fully blessed beyond measure to have a place where I can go and worship and learn about God. It is there that I find the ones, who think like I do and who are there to encourage, uplift and love.

Above everything I am thankful for my salvation, a gift from God. I am so thankful that we have a loving God, who in spite of our failures and faults loves us unconditionally. I am thankful for a God whose grace goes beyond what any of us can imagine.

I suppose I could write for hours about all that I have to be thankful for but instead I would like to close with this….

There is so much bad with the world that we live in. We are all faced with having to make cutbacks that we didn’t dream of having to do a year or two ago. Many of our loved ones have lost their jobs and homes. So many people are struggling just to make ends meet. We could choose to complain about it all day long, and it wouldn’t do any good at all. What we must do however is remember that in a very uncertain world we have one very certain thing and that is God. His promises and His word hold true no matter how bad the economy or the world gets. I serve a certain God who already knows how all of this is going to work out and for that I am very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Option or Priority?

Recently someone shared a very interesting quote with me. It went like this:

"Never make someone a priorty who only makes you an option"

This really set my mind in motion thinking on the meanings that this could hold. I have pondered it now for several days and this is what I have come up with.



  • Are you making God a priority or an option in your life? If you are saved, you did, at one time, make God a priority, but is that still holding true? Is God someone who you set above everything and everyone else in your life or do you take Him out on Sunday and then put Him back on the shelf on Monday? God certainly made us a priority. He did give His only Son for us and I would say that is indeed making us a top priority. If God is not a priority in your life I would encourage you to make a few adjustments. Because unless your relationship with God is right, no other relationship will be right either. Which leads me to....
  • All the young girls and single women who are out there. (and yes this even can apply to young men as well) I have seen far too many broken hearts and shattered dreams in my life. Too many times we set our priorities on people who are only making us an option. In relationships both people should make the other a priority. If only one person is setting the other as a priority you aren't getting a 50/50 relationship. We are all made beautiful in the eyes of God and His desire for you is to find that one person who He has for you. When you find that person, they will make you a priority. But don't forget not to make this person a priority over God and that person should do the same regarding you. If you are both making God a priority, the rest will all fall into place.
  • As wives and husbands we must be sure that our spouses take a priority spot in our lives. Today, in a world where the children, our jobs, our churches and the day to day responsibilities of life can be so crazy we have to be sure that we make spending time with our spouses a priority. If we don't I think we will find ourselves like so many people, we wake up one morning and realize we don't even know the person we are married to any more. The same holds true for our children. I personally don't think our families should ever take a back seat to our busy lives.
  • There is one other aspect of this that I have also been pondering... Is there ever a time when we do need to set someone as a priority that makes us an option. The answer I keep coming back to is yes. The answer seems pretty clear to me. There are people in this world, who are not believers who need to be ministered to. They most likely do not set us as priorities in their lives. The may only come around when they need or want something. That may be the only time that they are even half way sociable to us. But I have found over the years that unbelievers will come to believers in times of trouble because they already know how we think and how we feel. They know we will pray for them and be there for them. It is people like that they we must make a priority even though they only make us an option. Thank God He makes us a priority even when we don't make Him one, so it is what we should do.

I suppose I could go on and on about the priority vs. option theory. But all in all I believe that it all comes back to making sure God is our first and foremost priority and remember to thank Him daily for making us a priority in His eyes even though we do not always make Him a priority in our lives.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

It's Been a While

It has been quite some time since I have blogged here. I had gone back over to Xanga but that site just frustrates me beyond my patience level these days. So here I am, back to what is much easier for me. Since it had been quite a while I deleted everything prior and decided to start fresh and new.

Blogging or journaling is something I have always loved doing. Sadly, life has gotten in the way of that recently and I have found it easier and easier to just not do it. But, God has recently began to show me that I really do need to slow down just a bit (more on that to come).

So for now, I am back...... and will be posting more on a regular basis.