Being Thankful and Catching Up!

Wow! It seems like forever since I've checked anyone's blog. I hope to try and catch up a little bit this weekend. I love my new job, but it doesn't leave much time for checking all my favorite blogs. I am on the computer pretty much all day. So once I get home, I rarely even go near the computer. It's amazing how a job changes "everything" in your life! But it's all good! :)

I guess first for some catching up. Wedding plans are going great. Everything is booked and now we are just working out details. Ashley is doing great and having finals this week before coming home for Christmas break. This Christmas is kind of bittersweet. It will be our last Christmas together as a family of four. Next year things will change; but we love Warren to death and he is a direct answer to prayer. So all the changes will be good! It will just be different. I'm actually looking forward to planning a Christmas meal and everything that goes with Christmas for our own expanding family! :)

I don't think I ever posted about this, but Jeremy got the lead in the musical again this year. They are doing "Oklahoma!" and he got the part of Curly. It will be January 10, 11 & 12 for anyone who might be in the area. Tickets won't be on sale until probably after school starts again in January. Needless to say, that is taking up a lot of his time right now. He continues to sing on the praise team at Highland Oaks and he is also leading worship for At the Cross Church of Christ, a small church just starting out.

In our Wednesday night class the last few weeks we have been talking about "The Art of Being Thankful". About how we are supposed to be thankful in "all" circumstances. Sometimes that can be really hard to do if you are in the middle of something that is not so good. Christopher has reminded us about being thankful for everything. For example, our breath as we take it. How often do we thank God for our breaths. As Christopher puts it, "Try not breathing for a couple of minutes and you will begin to become very thankful for those breaths."

We tend not to thank God for the obvious or just everyday things. And sometimes those are some of the things we should be most thankful for. One thing I have tried to start doing is to change my prayer life. Even when things during the day have maybe not gone as I would have hoped, I am trying in my prayer life to only pray in a thankful manner. As I pray, I try to turn every situation into something I can thank God for.

I can tell you, after doing that for a few weeks, it really starts to change your perspective about a lot of things. It's harder to complain, gripe, just be in a generally bad mood, when you are being thankful! Last night, we talked about the scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5 that says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I have continued to ponder over that one verse of scripture. God's will for us is that we pray and give thanks always. But the first part of that verse says Be Joyful Always. I am finding that if you pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, being Joyful is what you are! Not something you have to work toward.

I pray that throughout this season of Peace and Joy that everyone will be able to be more thankful and experience the true Joy of living in Jesus Christ. Blessings!