Gratitude

I have been stressed lately.  With my husband looking for a job and us wondering if we will even get to use his masters degree, the pressure and stress in my own mind has been building.  And honestly, it brings me down.

I was talking with a sweet friend - the kind of friend who is a walking breath of fresh air and living sunshine.  She gave me some wonderful insights.  I was sharing my frustration with her and also the way I try and control the situation around me.  She said, "You won't find joy until you find gratitude."

Gratitude...

Let me try...

I am thankful for my community, a supportive church that cares for me and has reached out to me in a ton of ways.  I am thankful for my family, my genetics, my up bringing.  They have made me who I am and given me discipline, drive, passion, creativity, and a deep love for the Lord and for people.  I am thankful for the friends God has put in my life - in every season there have been friends.  I think of all the friends throughout my life who have dramatically impacted me.

I am thankful for the years I spent single - for the long walks, the ability to experiment with the arts, the growing, the dependance on God in that season.

I am thankful for my beautiful home.  For the fireplace.  For the baby safe spaces.  I am thankful for a space to paint, a keyboard to play, onsite laundry with machines that we did not have to buy.  I am thankful for heat and for air-conditioning.  I am thankful for our little garden in the back yard that is growing cucumbers, various herbs, and hopefully strawberries.

I am thankful that this world is full of beauty.  I am thankful for thunderstorms and sunny days.  For seasons.  For innocence.  For water and beaches and vacation time.

I am thankful for good books, shelves of them.

I am thankful for my education.  I am thankful I can read.

I am thankful for my amazing daughter - more beautiful, clever, and tenacious than I could have imagined.  She is my little heart, my little joy.  She is wonderful and incredible.

I am thankful for my husband.  He loves people with more reckless abandon than anyone I have ever met.  He is kind, fiercely protective, handsome, clever, and has brought a tremendous amount of healing, joy, and love into my life.  He is funny.  He is my closest friend, my confidant.  He challenges me, pushes me, and helps me see my weaknesses so that I can overcome them.

Most of all I am thankful for my God.  He has always provided.  He has taken my life in directions I could never have imagined.  He gives me the strength to keep going and the desire to live life abundantly.

I think it is working... the stress fading some as I remember some of the blessings in my life.  My name means "Blessed One" and that is so true.  I am indeed very blessed.