Missing Them

I called home on Thursday.

On Thanksgiving.

I talked to my family… to my mom, dad, brothers (B and K)… to my SIL S and to my niece C…

I made it through talking to S, my dad and C… I held on as best I could while talking to B and struggled as I talked to K… but hearing my brothers talking about my each other's kids, well, it kind of broke my heart.

I want to be there. Home. At least for the holidays. I want to be there for Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas. I want to be there for my niece and nephew's birthday parties. I want to be there for dance recitals and future little league games. I want to be able to babysit for them and to be able to get to know them. I don't like being the aunt they see two or three times a year. I want to be in their lives.

Needless to say my mom heard them in my voice. The tears that threatened to spill. The tears that threaten to spill now as I'm typing this out.

I love Tennessee.

But sometimes it stinks.

Even When I’m Not

Confession: I don't always love my job.

I don't think of it as a big secret… I don't think I know anyone that loves their job all the time. Do you? I think we all get frustrated and annoyed sometimes.

But I'm thankful for my job. I'm thankful that I have a place to come to where I can be annoyed! Especially now, this economy. I'm so thankful that I have a job. And it's a job that allows me to not only pay my bills, but also to pay off my debt. A job where I have made great friends. A job where I have a boss that really cares. A job that is run by a Godly man who truly cares about his employees.

There are worse places to work…

Like retail on Black Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving: 2009

It's Thanksgiving!! Are you surprised? I'm thinking not since I've been blogging about it all week! So here it is, blog friends. The 'List of Thankfulness" for 2009, in no particular order... You're excited, I can feel it! Haha

• God's sovereignty 
• The blessing of Godly parents who trust God (and trust that their daughter trusts Him, too!) 
• 2 brothers that have become pretty cool over the last few years
• 2 amazing sis-in-law's (they're cooler then my brothers. Haha)
• The ever endearing CG, DC, CJ, and (very newly born) EB
• My best friend being alive and well!!
• Zumba! Fun Latin/hip hop/dance workout. Yay for having fun while burning lots of calories!
• My roomies RubyRed & BrooklynCS. They've both been there for me this year as God is teaching me much while giving me brokenness. Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulders!
• Authentic friends that are as close as family.
• Not working retail on Black Friday!!!
• Church family that tag team you to convince you that you need to join them for Thanksgiving dinner (I prefer Thanksgiving alone, somehow it's less lonely, but I did cave at stopping by in the evening for dessert) 
• Books about string theory and God's existence. 
• RED shoes!!
• Mentoring relationships
• The smell of fresh cut grass in the summer
• Thanksgiving leftovers!! So much better on day's 2,3,4…
• Photography blogs. They help me dream of what I might be able to do when I someday own my very own DSLR camera. Someday….. *big dreamy sigh*
• Jeans day's at work!
• Shopping online and small boutiques for Christmas presents. It is so much better than the mad crush of shoppers.
• Our country's Military. Many are giving up their Thanksgiving with their families to keep our freedom. Have you thanked them lately?
• Coworkers that can make me laugh even on a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day (maybe I should move to Australia{how I hope you get that reference})
• The rain we had to deal with at the beginning of fall. The leaves have turned such beautiful colors this year!

I'm sure I could keep this list going on and on blog friends, but I'm going to stop right now.
 

I'd love to hear what you're thankful for this Thanksgiving, so comment away and let me know!

Wordless Wednesday: Thankful

Thank YOU!!

Today I want to tell you how thankful I am for you, my lovely blog readers! I don't know how many of you there are, I just know that I appreciate each and every one of you.

I like that I can be blunt on this blog, I like that I can put up photographs I've taken and share my ponderings with you. I hope you all enjoy reading my mishaps and poems and my lessons learned. I am thankful that I have this outlet available to me, that I am able to share my life with you…

I look forward to many more blogging years with you =o)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you get to enjoy it with family, friends, and loved ones.

*hugs* to you

Joy

Thankful

This week in honor of Thanksgiving, my FAVORITE holiday, I am going to attempt to blog something I'm thankful for each day including the traditional list on Thanksgiving Day that I've done for the last couple of years (you can find them here and here).

Today I want to share with you how thankful I am for God's word; this year more than ever. I'm not perfect by any means, but I used to take it for granted and lately God has been reminding me of how important it is for me to read my Bible daily and to hide His word in my heart. I pray for you, my blog readers, that you know and follow this truth as well.

In honor of this, I'm going to share a list of truths about God's word for you to read from a sermon titled A Song of Trust in God's Word that I heard at my church on 11/15/09. You can listen to it HERE!! All of the verses referenced are from Psalm 119.

• God's word is a source of blessing v. 1
  
• God's word increases my love/passion for God v. 10-11
  
• God's word helps me overcome the world's rebukes & insults v. 19-23
  
• God's word encourages me in difficult times v. 25, 28
  
• God's word teaches me to focus on the eternal, not the temporary v. 36-37
  
• God's word gives me what to say v. 41-46
  
• God's word reminds me He will bring justice v. 52-53
  
• God's word brings me to repentance v. 59
  
• God's word teaches me God's sovereignty & purposes in affliction v. 71
  
• God's word shows me my need…Godly understanding v. 73, 75
  
• God's word teaches me longsuffering v. 81-84
  
• God's word brings hope v. 92-93
  
• God's word brings wisdom not based on age & life experiences v. 98-100
  
• God's word keeps me from foolishly falling into traps v. 105, 109-110
  
• God's word teaches me the fate of the wicked v. 119
  
• God's word teaches me dependency on Him v. 121-126
  
• God's word makes sense of life v. 130
  
• God's word teaches me biblical anger v. 139
  
• God's word makes prayer meaningful v. 145-148
  
• God's word teaches me He is the giver of eternal life v. 154, 156, 159
  
• God's word brings peace v. 165
  
• God's word teaches that He answers prayer v. 169-176

Why’d You Have to go and Make Things so Complicated

Do you ever wonder why people are afraid to pray in front of others? Do you notice it when you're out to eat with friends at a restaurant… do you play the "thumbs up" game to see who has to pray? Why don't we volunteer? What is it about speaking to our Savior that is so scary?

Is it us? Is it the people we're with? Do we think people are judging our words? Like what we say just isn't going to be good enough… Like we need to be the most eloquent of speakers for God to really hear us and listen? Or do we need to be eloquent for our friends to be o-so-impressed by us?

In the recent past, I rented You Can't Take it with You and was struck by the sincerity of the dinner prayers of the grandfather. He just talked to God:

Grandpa : [offering grace] Quiet, please, quiet! Well, sir, here we are again. We've had quite a time of it lately, but it seems that the worst of it is over. Course, the fireworks all blew up, but we can't very well blame that on you. Anyway, everything's turned out fine, as it usually does. Alice is going to marry Tony; Mr. Kirby, who's turned out to be a very good egg, sold us back our house - he'll probably forget all about big deals for a while. Nobody on our block has to move; and, with the right handling, I think we can even thaw out Mrs. Kirby here. We've all got our health; as far as anything else is concerned, we still leave that up to you. Thank you.

How incredibly simple is that!!

I hope you talk to God today. He wants to hear from you…