Giving thanks in all circumstances...

What a week it's been in our world.  From horrid acts of violence in many places in our world, (not only in France), to earthquakes. Our world is sin-ravaged and hurting. While praying for our world and doing what we can do to help,  it's not selfish, self absorbed or insensitive to continue to give thanks.  We can mourn with those who mourn, weep with those who weep, and still maintain an attitude of thanksgiving in all circumstances.  I'm thankful that God is still on His throne.  I'm thankful for all of those who help the hurting, the police, the medical professionals, etc.  I'm thankful for all of the prayers that are being prayed all around the world, and I'm thankful that God hears and answers those prayers.  

***************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little green journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

11-9-15-

-getting so much out of reading 1&2nd Peter again

-lots of help on our new floor installation-the end is in sight

-my friend and I laughing so hard at a funny group text from my daughters

11-10-15-

-lunch with my friend that I haven't seen or talked to in too long

-God's amazing provision-(my granddaughter wanted a toy for Christmas that was over the budget we set. 

 I often pray about these sorts of things, and I found one at Marshall's valued at $199 and their price was $49.99! 

 YaY God and YaY Marshall's!)

-my son-in-law found someone to install the gas line for our new range

-an unexpected blessing 

11-11-15-

-Veteran's Day-I'm thankful for those who serve our country

-the living room floor is done!

-breakfast for dinner at our house and friends sharing it with us

11-12-15-

-HALLELUJAH!  The wood floors are all in!

-Jesus- the radiance of the glory of God

-a really good prayer time at church

11-13-15-

-the new frig is installed

-the hubs and our friend putting in the molding

-taco soup at our friend's house after a long day of work on the house

11-14-15-

-bringing hot Vietnamese pho soup to our oldest daughter's house for them and our two croupy granddaughters

-God's help with a photo editing glitch when I needed to get my weekly post done

 for Woman to Woman

-tackling the last of the unpacked boxes!  Hurray!

11-15-15-

-our long time friends driving over from the coast to go to church with us,

and we enjoyed lunch together afterwards too

-a free Thanksgiving turkey!

-spending the afternoon with my oldest granddaughter and doing a Christmas craft together

gratefully yours,

Firmly on His throne...

It seems as though the world has gone mad.  Yet, when we look at Scripture we see that when man, of his own freewill, chose his own way over God's way in the garden, mankind began to devolve, not evolve.  Evil and sin and wickedness entered this world right along with man's decision to rule His own life instead of submit to God's leadership.  (Please join me for the rest of this post tomorrow, Sunday November 15th,  at Woman to Woman Ministries where I'm sharing some Sunday Soul Food.)

still following,

Also happily linking up with the lovely Lisha Epperson 

and Cheryl McCain Photography.

Discombobulated...

It should have been easy.  All I wanted was to buy a loaf of bread.  I wandered around looking for the proper aisle for several minutes, when a feeling of panic started to come over me.  The thought, "why did we move here?" came to my mind.  I called my friend, who made the same move several years ago.  "I'm at the store and I can't find the dadgum bread aisle!" After living in the same house for sixteen years and shopping at the same grocery store for that length of time, this small frustration loomed large in my mind.

As I pulled out of the church parking lot I was also talking on the speaker phone to a friend.  I was halfway to Portland, Oregon, to our former home, before I realized that my mind, in auto pilot mode and distracted with the phone call, had headed home.  The only problem was, home was in Vancouver, Washington now.

We've had some sort of renovation going on since our move.  We've replaced old, outdated lights with new ones.  Old vinyl and carpet has been pulled up and new hardwoods are replacing them. Old appliances are being replaced with new stainless steel ones.  The house is full of construction materials and dust and furniture crowded into rooms where it doesn't belong so flooring can be laid.

Our friends from church have helped us with all of the projects around the house.  An electrician, an engineer, a construction worker, and other able bodied volunteers.  They've put in hours and hours and hours of free labor, making all of this renovation and updating possible. They are happy to have us living closer to the church, and have proven it with huge sacrifices of time and effort.  I'm overwhelmed at all that they've done for us and feel helpless to adequately thank them.

Discombobulated is the best word to describe my life these last three months.  Normal routine flew out the window the minute our former house sold in July and we began to pack our belongings up in boxes.  I've been confused, befuddled and disoriented ever since.  I've never loved moving and all of the chaos that goes with it, but this move has been especially hard, long, and drawn out.  There's no doubt in my mind that God foresaw all of this when He began showing me halfway through 2014 that my word for 2015 was to be endurance.  

Some Holy Spirit insight into my soul reveals that the reason I feel so discombobulated is a matter of control.  The one thing you can't control is other people.  Being in the ministry is being in the full time business of dealing with people.  My outer world feels out of control much of the time because of this.  Home is the one place that I could control.  My number one goal has always been to have a home that exuded peace.  People often commented that our former home looked and felt peaceful.  My response to outside stress was to make our home a little fortress of peace. That hasn't happened here, in our new to us home, yet.  I think God has had me endure four months of upheaval to show me that my fortress of peace should have been Him all along, not my surroundings, not my home, not my family.  It's Him and Him alone.

Even this feeling of being indebted to people in a way that I know I can never repay is an issue of control.  As a pastor's wife, I'm usually on the giving end of the equation.  Being on the receiving end of so much has me feeling undone.  I can't write enough thank you cards or make enough meals or bake enough goodies to make the equation come out even.  I'm not in control of all this grace we've received.

The major part of the renovations will be done before Thanksgiving.  I'll be able to clean up the construction dust, put the furniture back in place, unpack the remaining boxes, and make our new to us house feel like home, soon.  But, the truth is, home is a Person, not a place.  Peace is a Person, not the condition of my surroundings.  I'm tired of feeling discombobulated.  I want to my mind and heart to be at peace, no matter what my outward surroundings look like.    

still following,

  

Also joining THOUGHT PROVOKING THURSDAYS 

Six years later I'm still counting...

Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of the day I started my very first gratitude journal.

It has been life changing for me.

It hasn't changed my outward circumstances,

but it has changed the way I see my circumstances.

I see God's hand in my everyday, His goodness even on the no good, very bad, horrible ones.

Thanksgiving is not just a day in November, it's a habit worth developing.

***************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little green journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#6762-#6789

11-2-15-

-a girl day with my friend

-some more progress on the house renovation

-tacos at my daughter's house

-texts asking for prayer

11-3-15-

-catching up on my Bible reading

-sun shining by the time I went on my walk

-my friend from Nebraska calling me and praying with me

11-4-15-

-being able to borrow a truck to pick up the floor molding

-the molding costing less than I thought it would

-God's love even when I'm not lovable

11-5-15-

-the flooring installation getting started

-homemade chili and cornbread shared with friends

-praising God aloud 'til the heaviness lifts

11-6-15-

-the floor molding going up in the dining room so I can picture what the finished project is going to look like

-going to the Peanuts movie with the two youngest granddaughters, their mama and daddy

 and our youngest daughter, too

-some warm, new slippers from my husband

11-7-15-

-writing scriptures on the subfloor

-encouragement and conviction from 1 Peter

-an old brown transferware plate

-a phone call from my oldest brother

-cozy candlelight on a rainy Saturday evening

11-8-15-

-joy and freedom in worship

-God's Word that convicts, challenges, encourages and heals

-dinner at our daughter's with my son-in-law's family that is here visiting from South Carolina

gratefully yours,

God's Word in our homes...

For years we lived in parsonages or rental homes and for many of those years I asked God for a home of our own. Seventeen years ago, God miraculously answered my prayer.  Out of the blue our landlord, a builder, told us that he felt that he was supposed to build us a house.  While our miracle home was being built, we put scripture verses inside the walls, and for all of the years that we lived there we saw God's promises and purposes come to pass in our lives in the good times and in the times of trial.

This summer we sold that home.  On the last day in our house, my husband and I both cried as we remembered God's blessings and all of the memories we had made there.  We stopped and thanked God for His faithfulness to us through the years.  We then moved into a new to us house closer to our church.  In the process of doing some updating to the house, we ripped up the old flooring to install new hardwood floors.  It was the perfect opportunity to write some of God's promises in our new home, right there on the subfloor.  (To read the rest of this post, and for a free download to use in your home, join me on Sunday, November 8th at Woman to Woman Ministries where I write a weekly Sunday Soul Food post.)

                                                                      still following,

Also happily linking up with the lovely Lisha Epperson 

and Cheryl McCain Photography.

Seasons change...

(Kim Klassen's villa texture,  hardlight, 70% opacity

quote from the song Seasons Change by Will Reagan)

The seasons seem to come and go with breakneck speed the older I get.

I've been waking in the night with a panicky feeling of not being fully prepared and ready for the next season.

That ought not to be.

(Kim Klassen's everyday texture, multiply mode 70% opacity)

The truth is that the same God who created me in my mother's womb loves me always and forever.

He promises to be with me and to carry me even when my hair is white with age. (Isaiah 46:4)

(I love that there are even promises regarding aging in God's Word!)

(Kim Klassen's elevate texture, hardlight, 10% opacity)

Things in life are constantly changing. 

A job you've had for decades may suddenly come to an end.

A friend that you thought would be there forever may have walked out of your life.

Even good changes, a move, a promotion, children graduating and leaving home or getting married,

have stress and challenges mixed in with the joy.

  (picmonkey's rapture preset, 50%)

There is only one thing that is unchangeable, God and His love for us.

The reassurance that truth gives me gets me through life's changes,

the hard ones and the good ones.

(Kim Klassen's gift texture, hardlight, 30% opacity)

What changes are you going through in this season of your life?

(Kim Klassen's monday texture, screen mode, 30% opacity)

still following,

texture-twist

songography at "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out"

image-in-ing:Variations

He is good and He never changes...

Thanksgiving day is only 25 days away!

I love that we take a day as a nation to give thanks,

but in reality, thanksgiving should be a lifestyle, especially for us Jesus followers.

Let's face it, circumstances don't always make it easy to give thanks.

Hard, heart wrenching things happen.

I had an afternoon like that this week.

This morning in church we sang these words,

"You are good and You never change God".

So, if you're like me and you momentarily lose your perspective and forget all of God's blessings 

and giving thanks is the last thing on your mind, you can always give Him thanks for this.

He's there.  He's good.  He never changes.

Hallelujah!

***************

Since 2009 I've been counting my blessings thanks to the prompting of Ann Voskamp.

 I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little green journal.

(and capturing some of my blessings via my camera or iPhone)

#6743-#6766

10-26-15-

-the fireplace has been successfully moved and is working!

-my friend and I doing demo and removing the floor molding

-oldest daughter and her girls and our two oldest grands coming over for spaghetti dinner 

in spite of the renovation mess

10-27-15-

-driving to The Dalles with our youngest daughter and her husband to pick up our canned peaches order

-the one rain free day of the week for our drive

-our beautiful Pacific Northwest

10-28-15-

-God's Words to me from 2 Timothy

-listening to a podcast on my walk and the same verses being quoted

-healthy homemade soup

-a successful Keep Collective party 

10-29-15-

-a wonderful get together with a friend I mentor

-a friend to listen and pray with me after some sad news

-Psalm 29:11 given to me by another friend

10-30-15-

-going to the beach for the day with my husband on his day off

-walking by the sea

-this day to be together

10-31-15-

-help on our flooring project

-a plan to start laying the new hardwood on Thursday

-working on the new mantel

11-1-15-

-He is good and He never changes

-fun, food, fellowship at our Autumn Comfort Food Potluck

-oldest granddaughter spending the afternoon with me

-making chocolate haystacks for youth group with her

gratefully yours,