Thankful Thursday

Disclaimer: I stole the idea of a "Thankful Thursday" post from my fellow blogger and friend Lyndsie. Thanks for the great idea Lynds! With that being said, today is Thursday and I have so many things in my life to be thankful for! Here are just a few of them.

I am thankful that my back yard presents a beautiful portrait of fall every time I look out the window.





I am thankful for an amazing accountability partner that I can confess my shortcomings to over and over again and always be met with grace and prayer. Thanks Elizabeth for being such a blessing!



I am thankful that my best friend Sarah and her husband finally finished remodeling their house and have now just put it on the market! Way to go Sarah, I know you and your family put so much work into this house and it definitely paid off!



I am thankful that the roses we planted in August are STILL ALIVE! (I usually kill flowers).



I am thankful that my husband is such an awesome, hands-on dad. Brooke has the best daddy ever!



I am thankful for my beautiful family.




There are so many more things I am thankful for, but I will stop there today. Indeed, my cup runneth over with blessings. I am thankful most of all for the amazing King we serve. What are you thankful for today?

How to be Miserable

E. Stanley Jones writes:

The most miserable people in this world are the people who are self-centered, who don't do anything for anyone except themselves. They are centers of misery with no exception...on the contrary, the happiest people are those that deliberately take on sorrows and troubles of others. Their hearts sing with a strange, wild joy, automatically and with no exceptions. (Disciplines of the Holy Spirit)

Shane Claiborne writes:

There are times I have been very frustrated with wealthy folks for hoarding their stuff. But now I know enough rich folks to know the loneliness that is all too familiar to many of them. I read a study comparing the health of a society with its economics, and one of the things it revealed is that wealthy countries like ours have the highest rates of depression, suicide, and loneliness. We are the richest and most miserable people in the world. (The Irresistible Revolution)


From what I understand, the easiest way to become miserable is to make as much money as possible, and then spend it on no one but yourself. Also, think only about yourself whenever possible. If you start to think about someone else, push the thought away. They can take care of themselves. The only person you really need to think of is yourself.

Okay okay, enough with the sarcasm. But seriously, I'm am so thankful that God has given me the wisdom to realize that money and selfishness will never lead to happiness. Now I just have to figure out how to stop being selfish.

If Walls Could Talk

I had a wonderful meeting tonight with a dear friend. We had coffee. It was refreshing, and I don't just mean the coffee.

Lots of things are said over coffee. If Starbucks' walls could talk I bet they would have a lot to say. Actually, I bet the walls of coffee houses across America keep hidden more wisdom than we could imagine. They sit in silence as many shadowey secrets are whispered across tables. They soak in stories full of truth. I'm sure many lies have slithered across their surfaces too. Thankfully they listen like a faithful friend, and then never make a peep so that we can safely return time and again. Cheers to the walls of coffee houses and to friends who truly know us.

Jesus Wrecked My Life

I've been reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne with my small group recently. It is one of those books I really wish every one would read.
It talks a lot about materialism, the true meaning of life, and what it means to really love each other. It's probably the most challenging book that I have ever read- not at the comprehension level (it is an easy read) but in the way it challenges me in my faith. Although I do not necessarily agree with every single thing the author says, a lot of what he says brings clarity and grants perspective to what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be an American as well. I want to share a passage from the book that really made me start asking questions about my own life. Hopefully it will bring a new perspective to you too.


Jesus Wrecked My Life
(Claiborne)
I know there are people out there who say "My life was such a mess. I was partying, drinking, sleeping around...and then I met Jesus and my whole life came together." God bless those people. But me, I had it together. And then I met Jesus and he wrecked my life. The more I read the gospel, the more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued, and hoped for upside-down. I am still recovering from my conversion. I know it's hard to believe, but in high school I was prom king. I was in the in-crowd, popular, ready to make lots of money and buy lots of stuff, on the upward track to success. I had been planning to go to med school. Like a lot of folks, I wanted to find a job where I could do as little work as possible for as much money as possible....Then I could buy lots of stuff I didn't need. Mmm...the American dream. But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn't fit together. As I read scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first...