I am Thankful for... - A Wendy Post

In spite of the "crazy" and the things I am not pleased with, there are literally thousands of things I am thankful for.  I do believe that gratefulness & contentment go hand in hand.  God's Word tells us to give thanks in all circumstances.  It is a good thing to set aside a time of year for thanks.   For what it's worth, here are some things that come to mind this Saturday morning at 7 a.m.!

I am thankful for....

~quiet mornings when I am the only one up!

~the blessing of being a homeowner.  I remember when Ken & I had our first night in our Pearl Street home & we just couldn't believe it!  It is SO nice to have a home!

~My home in particular, the location & view & structure & grey shingles & big rocks.

~My salvation, which is without a doubt, the biggest gift.

~warm cups of hot chocolate, chai, coffee & tea.

~letters in the mail.

~the fact that we now have high speed internet!

~the seasons.  Life would be so boring without them.  My favorite is autumn.

~my vehicle.  I would feel trapped without a vehicle.  SO, so thankful.

~access to good healthcare & providers.  I am thankful for the speech therapist & physical therapist & physicians we have seen & known & know.

~good, clean drinking water!  

~refrigeration

~Animals in general, (how wonderful to go to a zoo & see the variety of animals there are!)

~My animals in particular!  My Nubians, Katahdin & Clara.  My chickens.

~The miracle of birth.

~The miracle of adoption.

~God's Word to us.  (Can I hear a 'Hallelujah!')

~Music & dance & poetry & art; the ability to express ourselves

~The beauty of God's creation, ('Hallelujah?!?')

~The places I have been able to travel:  Belize, South Dakota, PEI & Texas.

~My HOBBIES!  I am thankful for cooking & knitting & hiking & reading & (someday) scrapbooking.

~the support I receive from those who love me.  Or at least feel sorry for me (!!!)  

~that, PTL, I am going to heaven someday!!!!!!

~the gift of sleep.  And I am a deep, deep sleeper.

~that I knew, at least a little, my great grandparents and that they provided a godly heritage & I am reaping the benefits of that.

~that I knew all 4 grandparents & that all 4 are now in heaven.  For the examples they set & the groundwork they laid.

~for my parents.  that they are still married.  That they raised us in a Christian home.  For ALL the things that parents do, like drive you back & forth to your $3.85/hour job at McDonald's, take your on vacations, put up with you as a teenager, listen when you call them crying, even though you are 38 years old, forgive you when you scratch their cedar chest...

~My BROTHERS!  My older brother who passed along a love of reading & playing, (and winning), games, who was my playmate.  My younger brother who was sweet & loving.  Well, still is!

~My sis-in-laws.  They add much-needed humor to my life, they are good mommies & wives.

~Oh goodness, my precious niece & nephew!   LOVE them!

~All the other relatives!  Let's lump them together!  Great aunts & uncles.  great aunts & uncles, cousins & their spouses & their kids, relatives from 'further out', so to speak!  I could write a book about their importance in my life.  Love them.

~Mountains!  And quite frankly, even more than mountains, I am thankful for all the parts of hiking that are not mountains!!

~Long, hot baths.  Especially with California Baby bubble bath!

~comfortable clothes

~the fact that I had the privilege to attend Philadelphia College of Bible & all the friends I had there & all the things I learned there, majoring in Bible & Elementary Education and the fact that I don't have college debt!!

~All the small things that bring me great pleasure - twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, playing games, warm blankets, a good photo...

~Our traditions:  Labor Day weekend campouts, Memorial Day weekend camping, MLK Jr. Ice Fishing Weekend.

~Holidays, especially Christmas.

~Biking, Fishing, Kayaking, Snowshoeing, Snowmobiling, Walking.

~quality ice cream & chocolates & cheese & crackers & strawberries & all my favorite foods.

~That I have enough to eat.

~those who have died for my freedom.

~the United States of America.  Our heritage & even what we are right now.  Our constitution & our freedoms.  (Could write a lot about that too!)  Including freedom of religion.

~The freedom to homeschool.

~My state.  I do believe this is the best one!  

~Movies.  I love movies!

~Good TV shows, my favorites usually being suspense.

~cheesy, sappy, Hallmark-ish movies.  Especially Christmas ones!

~the physical abilities I have - my senses, I can walk, talk, use my hands...

~88.5 and the shows that have made such an impact for me:  Family Life Today & Focus on the Family & Adventures in Odyssey, in particular.

~The PLETHORA of excellent resources available!  

~good fiction books

~Incredible choices of good, Biblical places to worship, even in our rural area.

~The programs my children have benefited from, in our local churches:  Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Youth Group, AWANA.

~my job!

~my friends!

~My husband:  he works hard, he communicates thoroughly, we have similar interests, we have common goals, his choice of career, we might just make it!!!

~hand-me-downs for myself & my kids!

~chicken coops & goat sheds!

~wild berries!  

~the moose & deer in my freezer!

~light

~My firstborn, Noelle.  And to think I wanted a boy!  I am simply thankful that she is in my life.  That is enough for me.  But she brings so much more.  She is often a delight to homeschool, she is motivated & independent & has a fire in her belly for certain things.  She is quirky & funny & sensitive & smart.  I am most thankful that when she was 3 years old she gave her heart to Christ.  

~My second born, Micah.  He is full of mischief & jokes, (often at the wrong time!), & love & he notices what happens in his world.  He is sensitive & caring & is gaining confidence daily.  He, too, gave his heart to Christ at the age of 2.  I am thankful for the joy that he brings to my life & for just who he is & that he is here.

~My "bonus one", as they say!  No matter what the future holds, I am thankful for all that we have shared these past nearly 8 years.  The uncountable hours of reading & teaching & shared family fun & doing hair.  She is also heaven-bound & we feel she is in the best school situation we could hope for, for her.  She is generous & resilient & determined.  

Well, that was 45 minutes of stream-of-consciousness writing, as it came.  There are many, many more things I am thankful for.  And, to be clear, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who receives the praise for each & every one of these things.  I am not randomly saying what I am thankful for, sending it to "the cloud".  I am thanking Him personally, as my Provider, Protector & the Giver of all good things.

Operation Christmas Child! Samaritan's Purse Christmas! - A Spiritual Life/Christmas Post

It's that time of year again!  Time for shoeboxes!  I want to share with your our journey with shoeboxes & what Operation Christmas Child means to us.

Operation Christmas Child is one of my favorite charities.

It's also one of the best ones to involve your children in.

Now, we've done quite a few things as a family:  Rice Bowls, Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, serving meals at Manna, raking leaves for the elderly, GROUP mission trips, Shoes for Orphan's Souls, Walk for Life, Compassion & more...

However, there is something very, very special about packing a simple shoebox for a kid the same age as you are.  You know what you would like, so you buy it & pray that it is handed to a little boy or girl with maybe your same interests.  

If you are unfamiliar with Operation Christmas Child, by all means, check them out.  They are a ministry of Samaritan's Purse.  Shoeboxes are filled with goodies & delivered to kids all over the world.  When you fill your shoebox, you choose "boy" or "girl" and an age category:  2-4; 5-9; or 10-14.  

The first time we ever, ever filled a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child was when Noelle was 2 years old.  I'm not sure how much she understood, but as I mentioned, of all the possibly charities, I feel like a child can imagine what another child would like!  So, that first year, we filled one box for a 2-year old girl.  

We continued to do that for a few years, filling a box for a girl Noelle's age & a box for a boy Micah's age.  

Our boxes typically have:

scissors

pencils/crayons/colored pencils/pencil sharpener

notebook

gluestick & extra erasers

hair things for girls

hard candy

toothbrush & toothpaste

comb

Then~ toys:  cars, balls, crafts, etc.

I actually try not to get "dollar store" toys because I really do want toys that will be somewhat durable & last & bring joy.  But we've purchased plenty of dollar store items as well.  

I received a bit of a wake-up call when Noelle turned 6.  She has a June birthday as she invited a good portion of her Kindergarten class to her party.  It was sweet & fun.  However, I felt sick about all those presents.  Seriously~ just sick.  It was the first & only time we would have a rather large party with presents.  There isn't anything necessarily wrong with getting lots of presents, but it was oppressively excessive to me.  I decided that we needed to make a change & do things differently.  

So... the year that Micah turned 6 & Noelle turned 8 & D turned 9, we had 3 birthday parties, but we asked their friends to please bring items for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes & not presents for them.  And we meant it.  By this time the kids were very familiar with OCC & were very receptive to the fact that they had everything they needed.  Some children didn't.  It made perfect sense to "give up" presents for kids who needed it more than they did.  There was very little balking from the kids & I am oh, so glad that we did it.  

We had the kids open their presents & ooh & ahh, even though the gifts were for OCC & not for them.

We liked the "Birthday for Operation Christmas Child" idea so much that we did it again, for 6 birthday parties worth of shoebox items!  I do believe that it is time to do it again!  And you know, this exercise was so good for the kids & really helped them appreciate what they have.

All of this led up to our Samaritan's Purse Christmas, which we had a couple of years ago.  I am not sharing this to brag, I am sharing it because these types of things:  Shoebox Birthdays and Samaritan's Purse Christmases, these are possible for all of us!  A good cause & one kids can relate to & besides that, It is so good for them!  Any way you can take a me-me-me cultural norm of gimme, gimme, gimme and turn that into giving to the Lord & others~ it's a good thing!

At least a couple of years ahead of time, the kids knew that we would be "giving up" our Christmas for Samaritan's Purse.  We had practiced, so to speak, with our birthdays.  It's a lot harder to "give up" Christmas, but we were ready. 

This meant:

~No gifts from parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles.

(exceptions to the rule:  Our kids are in a blended family, so of course they received gifts from their other parents.  Also, we did do stockings, our favorite part!)

~No purchased, perfect-looking Christmas tree.

~No special food treats.

All of this $ would be pooled & given to Samaritan's Purse.

I am really pleased with the cooperation we received from family, and of course from the kids.  

 The kids had stuffed-full stockings.  And they were plenty & enough.

 They enjoyed spending their time with playdoh & family games & 

 outside in our own make-believe world:  Narnibithia!

 Opening presents of $ was still fun.

 Counting our $ was fun too!

We ended up with over $700 to give!!!

 It was so much fun to go through the catalog & decide how to "spend" our money!  

 Each of the kids wrote a list of how they wanted to spend their portion.

Just today, Micah mentioned to me how he had helped pay for a well & how important clean drinking water is.  We chose hot meals & teacher supplies & stocking a fish pond & chickens!  

Christmas 2011 was one we will always, always, cherish.

So tonight I packed my three meager shoeboxes.  

And it seems so small.  

Maybe because it's not a "whole Christmas" or it's not a dozen boxes, which we sometimes have had.  Even so, Noelle wants to pray over each one before I take them to church.  I know that each one will be a blessing to some girl or boy.  

I am thankful for Operation Christmas Child.

So simple.

But such a meaningful part of our lives.

I pray that we will live with our minds, ears & eyes wide open, looking for ways to give.

I pray that we will live with our hands open, loosely grasping the things of this world.

I pray that we will see the world through God's eyes, and live accordingly.