I am especially reminded at this time of the year just how thankful I am for these things from just this past year....
I am thankful for men who stood beside me, men who told me...reminded me and even showed me who I am....
I am thankful I could pick up the phone in the middle of dread and despair and have someone share my gold with me....something no one has ever done...
I am thankful for the strength and perseverance that God granted to me new each day for as long as he wanted me to stand where I was,
I am thankful for getting a new job that he prepared in advance for me and the way he tore away the old jobs to force me in his desired direction.....
I am grateful that when God wants my attention he makes it very clear of direction by stripping things away...even things that he provided to sustain for a period of time,
I am grateful for a wife that loves me throughout periods of difficulty and shares with me lessons we are both still learning,
I am grateful for a new adam man that provided an opportunity to share my love of softball with my son and even paid for his spikes to remove any obstacles and showed love to my son through a game,
I am grateful that God has taught me what enough is...he sustains and a position of enough keeps me centered and still dependent on his leading,
I am grateful that having come through a very deep and long valley that I can appreciate some of the growth and lessons I've been taught that I never would have learned unless I had traveled this path...I would not change the path....it has changed me for the better and saved my life,
I am grateful that I can share the weight of some of my story with men who I do not floodlight...but rather they can sustain and bare the weight because of the miles we have traveled together,
I am grateful that after I had been offered a job and that offering evaporated...that a new adam man reminded me of the grace I have been granted...and called me out to demonstrate what I had been showed over and over again with mercy from unexpected places
I am grateful to men who have told me who I am ... and then given examples of why they believe it....and now I believe it too,
I am grateful for the man who gave up his treasured flash light...something I frequently use now and remember an I group lesson I will never forget,
I am grateful for the people I have crossed paths with at work who God has placed them in the right place so that I could speak into their lives,
I am grateful for the car brake lights, car fuses, headlights, vacuum cleaner, and recliner that I have repaired in this past year...something unbelievable and that I never had the patience or understanding to do before,
I am grateful for a job where it is desired that I bring who I really am...not the old false self with shield and armor to hide and deflect...but rather someplace where my mistakes and willingness to be transparent become a voice to build a bridge of hope for others,
I am grateful for a son who demonstrated perseverance and called others to do the same in the face of adversity,
I am grateful for a daughter that God has taught her to share pieces of her story and given others strength through that sharing,
I am grateful for the Father's Delight day...I got the chance to speak to the wonderful things about my daughter that I see but fail to vocalize...I am so grateful that she left me a card saying "I love you because....when the going gets tough, you don't run--you stay & fight,
Let's see......My wife has told me I'm enough...My son learned persevering the right way, my daughter made herself vulnerable by saying part of her story in order to help others, and my other daughter understands the importance of staying and fighting for the important things in life.....
I am grateful that my estranged brother and I forgave each other...that I learned what forgiveness is and really feels like.....
I am grateful that God mended relationships and grants grace to fill in the still glaring gaps,
I am grateful that this is the year that God broke the chains of my family's past generations...they will not take hold of my generation.....HOPE reigns, the power they held in the past in silence has no hold when the Light shines on it......
I am grateful for a wonderful and awesome God that has granted me all of this just this year.....any one of these things would have been enough
Grateful....a friend called me and told me I had gone back for him when no one else did...he told me I had gone back for the one...he made me cry.....fulfilled the promise I had been told....
I would love to hear others speaking and sharing what they are grateful for....If you are in the middle of a struggle and can't see something to be grateful for right now....I get it...just know He will walk through that struggle with you and when you come through you will understand and know he was with you.
