Thankful Thursday, 11/05/15

~The privilege to read and study the Bible in our own homes! Reformation Day is always a very good reminder of just how much we take this ability for granted!!!
~The Psalms! They are so full of encouragement!
~The Lord’s blessing and guidance last Sunday. I was asked to share the children’s message at church, and I was nervous about it, but I was given plenty of help and encouragement :)!

~And I am also thankful for how invested the children were while I shared. The smile that lit up one little girl’s face as I handed her a catechism and mentioned that they had bible verses that the children could study to learn the answer to some of their questions was one of the most precious things ever!
~Sweet new lives. We had a family introduce their tiny, perfect little newborn baby to our church family this week :)!!!
~John MacArther’s writings. I have been reading some of his books lately, and they have been a wonderful encouragement!
~Pastor Todd and Miss Lisa, and the rest of our church family. We have been so blessed through various people in our church over the past year!

~The pears that a friend gifted us with off of the tree in his yard.
~The GiveThanks! challenge :). I'm enjoying it so much!
~The pansy plant a lady from church gifted my Mama with Sunday :).
~Making a sale in my Etsy shop! That is exciting, haha :).

~My black sweater with all the knit designs all over it.. it’s one of my favorite cold weather garments, haha :).
~Gingersnap cookies! I think Josiah liked them, too… I just thought I had too many, then I discovered he fit just as many in his tiny tummy, haha!
~Mama inviting me to join her in a bible study of Romans chapter 8 :).

~Abbi’s help unloading the dishwasher :)!
~The story of William Wilberforce, and how he worked tirelessly for God to abolish the slave trade.
~The adorable little grin Josiah gives as he sits down in the seat you just left and hollers after you, ” ‘pot!!!!”, hahaha :). He’s so cute :)!

~A Mama who kindly drives me around for all my errands, since I won't drive... and she complains about it less then Bethi does, haha! But really, this is a blessing :).
~Learning new things… did you know that the real colors of leaves are the colors we see in fall? The reason we think leaves are green is because the chlorophyll is so predominate in the spring/summer that it dyes the leaves. But when it becomes less strong as the leaves are dying in fall, we get to see the real colors! Isn’t God’s design amazing :)?
~Working in the yard with my family.(We were raking/mowing all the leaves. A little funny for your rabbit-trail-reading pleasure; Abbi woke up this morning and looked out the window, and then I hear, "Oh, why does God let it do that?!". Apparently she isn't all that thrilled with how many leaves are already in the yard, haha!)

~Cameras. I am so glad we live in a time where we can capture precious little faces and moments :). Pictures in post taken while on break from raking yesterday afternoon, haha :).
~My notebooks and mechanical pencils, in matching sets with fun designs :). My family knows what makes me happy, haha :)!
~Stamps. I’m not even going to try to explain how quickly I can go through a sheet of stamps… haha! But, as they are needed to send my letters to all the sweet people I write, I am thankful to have some :).
~And handwritten letters. I love pulling a letter out of the mail box and knowing who it is before I even look at the name. People’s handwriting is like their “brand”, and I love the diversity :). Plus, today, it takes more thought to send a card then a text, and I think that even the shortest notes sent by “old snail mail’ are a treasure :).

 ~Christ's mercy and love for me (“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions”, Psalm 51:1).
~Music :)! Such a delightful addition to add to so many tasks :).
~The box of sweet little personalized Christmas ornaments we received from our Gramma yesterday :).
~One of the ladies who works with Daddy (and also goes to our church) bringing a pound cake to work for Daddy yesterday, just because she wanted to bless him and knew how much he loved it :). She is a special lady, always encouraging and doing for others!