Thanks Given

Today I woke up before the sun and snuggled in for some time in the Word and with my current read, A Thousand Gifts.  (Literally had to snuggle, as our heat is out!) The book is all about the life-giving-joy-producing practice of giving thanks for all things.  So I put it into practice this morning, first in my journal, listing out some of the sweetest blessings of the year and by faith, giving thanks for some of the really difficult providences of the past year.  Then, after my kids ate oatmeal wearing tobagans and mittens, we continued the thanksgiving on cold glass...the back glass door is currently full of purple and red marker, where we've listed many things we are thankful for as a family.  We're trying to scribble out a hundred today.

I decided I should record a few here for us as well.  When I look back on this year, I want to remember God's grace in the small things and in the big as well.  So here is Thanks Given from the Huffmans, 2013:

1.  Topping our list is Katie's health and God's hand on her this past week.  Oh we're so grateful for the timing/events surrounding her post-accident spleen rupture and internal bleeding.  Thankful for a team of ER workers and the surgeons who saved her life.  Thankful that my sister will be OK and has more of life ahead of her.  Thankful, to tears, for this gift.

2.  A sweet little elementary school for my Grapey Girl.  She's learning so much.  Did you know that the letters q and u are married?  I just learned that today.

3.   Hearing Jack jumping on his bed before 7....thankful for this wild boy's energy and the joy he brings me.

4.  A freckled Emma Grace nose...we say God sprinkled her with cinnamon.

5.  Cinnamon. We wrote that on our glass list as well, because cinnamon just makes all things fall better

6.  My bestest buddy Sheryl's new and newest gifts, Lucy and Hudson.

7.  Judah's little eating noises.  So cute.

8.  The colors of my house.  Color gives me life and I am so grateful to enjoy so many of them in my own home.

9.  My friend Brooke.  Talking with her is like coming home.  Her friendship is just comfortable.  And this year she and I have grieved together over dreams left unfulfilled.  Nothing like a friend who knows your pain because she is going through it as well.  What a gift to have her in my life and just a few miles down the road.

10.  Andy.  God has used Andy this year to show me how, in the face of  my brokenness and sin,  Christ doesn't move away from me, as if put off by what he sees, but rather he leans in with all that he is.  Andy's complete acceptance of me in the face of some major brokenness coming to the surface this year has been a light to me on a really dark spot in my life.  Andy, so thankful for the way you keep taking steps toward me and keep loving me with all that you are, living out Christ's love for me in such a tangible way.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!