A Work in Progress

This morning I was thinking how grateful I am for this lady here, in this slightly out of focus and off-center picture. Quite simply one of the best people I know, and the best grandma my boys could wish for. I’m grateful for more things, of course, but I wanted to focus on this one. We love you, Mimi.

It’s Sunday, and it’s pretty early. Didn’t sleep very deeply and I kept waking myself and my wife up snoring. It’s ok, though, because it gave me time to think and time alone with God.

I’m grateful for impromptu conversations about Jesus with the kids.

I’m grateful for the bounty God prepares for me.

I’m grateful he loves my kids more than I ever could on my best day.

I’m grateful for his love for me, even when I’m at my worst, which is more often than I’d care to admit.

You know what I’m really grateful for? God doesn’t keep track of how many times we’ve failed. He keeps no record of wrongs. Can you imagine if people did that?

What if we—in striving to be more like Jesus—built people up instead of tearing them down? The world would change.

Today is Friday. And it’s a pretty big day. We have a Pop Warner playoff game against the OTHER Scorpions team. I’m thankful my son has the opportunity to compete, which he loves to do.

I’m grateful that I’m off and not on call.

I’m thankful that I went to sleep and woke up next to my beautiful wife.

I’m grateful, too, that we were able to fellowship with our friends last night. They are like second family.

I’m grateful God loves me as I am, and not as I should be.

I’ll just say it: I don’t feel terribly grateful this morning. I feel exhausted and all I want to do is sleep. Yet at the same time I acknowledge that how I feel has nothing to do with the goodness of God.

It never changes. Take a few minutes and listen to this song.

I wasn’t feeling grateful when I woke up and after a few minutes I thought of it. Hadn’t heard it in a while.

It made me think that no matter my situation, God is the same; good. If I was to curse him, he’d love me the same.

So today, right now, I’m grateful for parenting lessons when I least expect them. Thank goodness it’s Thursday.

Let’s start November—the month featuring a holiday dedicated to giving thanks—with thankfulness.

I’m grateful to FCC for putting on their annual Harvest Festival. It’s a real blessing to the community to have somewhere safe to go and to see so many familiar faces and to be among old friends. We took the boys for a while last night and it was fun.

Thankful for the shuffle iPod function—this morning mine guessed I wanted to hear Todd Agnew, Pink Floyd and Avenged Sevenfold in that order.

I’m thankful for 500 years of reformation—solo Christus!

There’s always more, but I have to work sometime.

This morning I’m very grateful I didn’t wake up last night, and actually slept the whole night. Granted, it was only for about 6.5 hours, but was loads better than waking every 2 hours.

I’m also really grateful for this Bluetooth speaker my wife gave me a while back. It helps the day go by more quickly.

I’m grateful for phone service in the office. Good to able to communicate with people.

Also very grateful my kids are doing well in their jobs—being students and good kids.

And I’m probably the most grateful for Luke 15:20

Not a whole lot of sleeping going on tonight, and that sucks, but there’s a blessing in there as well. In the midst of the day, it’s like being in traffic. It’s noisy and you can’t really hear anything except for all the crap going on. 

It’s in the quiet you hear the most. So early it’s pretty much still night.

The chain on the ceiling fan is a metronome.

Humming from the AC and the air purifier.

Slow, rhythmic snoring from my wife every once in a while.

That’s when you can hear from God the most, too. It’s the best time for a conversation.

So I’m grateful for those unintentional late night conversations. It’s like being able to call dad for consolation and wisdom.

Or to just talk.

Something else worth mentioning is that I’m so grateful for God moving convictions in my wife and I separately, that end up the same in the end. And we didn’t consult one another, just ended up that way.

Sometimes, Gratitude is a little work. My inclination might be toward selfishness, and I don’t feel like expressing grateful thoughts.

But there is always something be grateful for. 

Each day comes with the opportunity to learn something, or the opportunity to bless someone.

Each day we have the chance to disrupt the expectations of people toward God and to seek his face in some way they haven’t before.

So I’m grateful for those things, and more.

Thinking I’m grateful I woke up at 730 today. It doesn’t happen often. Still tired, but feeling a little better.

There’s much else to be grateful for, but I still don’t have all my marbles for the day.