thirty thankful days-day 18-my favorite girl

Every day in November I am posting something I'm thankful for, and I would love to have you join me!  Link to your thankful post below, or write about it in the comments.  Let's be thankful together!

If you're keeping track...I missed a day of posting.  Some days are full and nights are late.  I was thankful, but didn't write about it.  I'm over it...and am on to today...

pickle on instagram

My daughter.  I find new things to love about her all the time.  Wednesday night we went out to dinner with an old friend of ours from college who was in town on business.  Throughout our dinner conversation, Pickle chatted happily with our friend.  I participated in the discussion, but the whole time part of my was sitting back and observing her as she shared her school experiences and her thinking about college and her future.

My thoughts?  She's so pretty--as she smiled big and brushed her hair from her eyes over and over.  She is so poised--casually talking with a 40-something year old man she sees about once every couple of years.  She is charming--she is beautifully animated as she speaks about her desire to work with kids, maybe kids with special needs, as a career.  I was enthralled with who she is and who she is becoming.

Last night we had our weekly long ride to her tutor's home.  And, because she is there, the music is on.  She's singing along, as always.  I love listening to her--whether she's belting out a ballad, or picking out harmonies to the various pop songs she's into.  I never tire of hearing her sing.

This girl-woman is quickly becoming a person I choose as a friend as well.  Her sense of humor and her caring heart make her a wonderful person to be around.  We laugh a lot together...and I value her opinion.

She's 15, and that makes some moments difficult.  In fact, there was one this morning.  {smile} Those moments are far outweighed by the wonderful ones.  Today I'm thankful for my beautiful, growing-up-too-fast daughter.

What are you thankful for today?  Link up or comment!  Let's fill up blogland with thankfulness!

A few simple instructions for the link up:

-please link to your specific thankful post--not just your blog

-please link back to theGoodlife in your post so others can join the fun!
-feel free to grab the 30 thankful days graphic--I haven't figured out how to make it a button yet.  I'm such a techy, huh?

thirty thankful days-day 16-healing journey

Every day in November I am posting something I'm thankful for, and I would love to have you join me!  Link to your thankful post below, or write about it in the comments.  Let's be thankful together!

Today I'm thankful for the Healing Journey class I'm taking--a Bible-based class designed to bring healing to wounded hearts.  God told me to take this class back when He told me to "let go of the safety ropes", and I signed up.  I didn't think I needed that much healing, so I wasn't that excited about it.  But I was being obedient, stepping one more step forward.

Well, you guessed it, I am learning so much.  As I expected, many parts of the class are foundational to our faith and reinforce what I already believe.  The part of the class I am enjoying the most though is learning new frameworks with which to understand my feelings, thoughts and actions.  I'm starting to understand some of my patterns I'm stuck in.  I'm learning ways to process the wounds I have received.  I'm being given a vocabulary to speak about things I didn't really understand.  I've been to counseling a few seasons of my life...and this is building on things I learned then and I believe giving me tools for the future.  Our Small Group time each week is particularly meaningful--we listen to each other.  That's it.  We don't judge.  It's a gift to be heard.  Our small group leader then helps us with the processes we are learning to use.  We have a-ha moments.  We rejoice at the progress we see each other making in understanding ourselves.  God is at work.

Last night at our class, the class author and teacher (we watch her on video), Cyndy Sherwood, was there to talk to us and encourage us in person.  I really enjoyed meeting her and hearing what she had to say to us as a group.  One of the main things I remember is the way she related the class to shopping for something like clothes or a car.  She said the video/teaching is like the part of shopping when you gather information (see what's in the store, go online, see what's being offered).  The small group time is like taking the car for a test drive, or trying on the clothes--seeing how the information intersects with our life, learning how to apply the teaching.  But if all we did was find out the information, and test-drive it, and they go home--we don't own anything new.  Instead, there needs to be a transaction.  She said the transaction (the life-change) happens when we do our homework.  That's where decisions are made, we do business with God, and  the life-altering processing occurs.  I think that is true for most Bible Study classes--without the soul-work on your own with God, all you get is information...what do you think?

I'm thankful today that God led me to this class.  He is using it--along with trials and conversations with others--to help me face my "stuff", so I don't have to drag it around any more.  God wants to heal me--even of wounds and destructive patterns I was barely aware of.  He loves me too much to leave me the way I am.  Sometimes it's hard, but I'm thankful.  So thankful.

What are you thankful for today?  Link up or comment!  Let's fill up blogland with thankfulness!

A few simple instructions for the link up:

-please link to your specific thankful post--not just your blog

-please link back to theGoodlife in your post so others can join the fun!
-feel free to grab the 30 thankful days graphic--I haven't figured out how to make it a button yet.  I'm such a techy, huh?

thirty thankful days-day 15-the xerox man, my hero

Every day in November I am posting something I'm thankful for, and I would love to have you join me!  Link to your thankful post below, or write about it in the comments.  Let's be thankful together!

So, many of my Facebook friends are posting thankful things each day in November.  Some of them are so deep and meaningful and profound.  They are thankful for God's grace, and their loved ones, and things like laughter and hope.  And I post about online tutorials and bathroom tile.  Deeply moving, I know.  Well, here's another profound theological thankful post.  Today, I am thankful for the xerox man.

Here's the background scoop:

1)  Yesterday I was covering the church office for the whole day alone.
2)  Our copier was broken, so I needed to get the repair happening.
3)  The xerox people called no less than three times, with each time the story being different of who was coming to service our machine and when he might be coming.  The last I had heard at about 12:30 was that "Steve" was coming, probably the next day.
4)  Yet, surprisingly, "Pete" showed up at our door at almost 1:00 in the afternoon.  (right when I was supposed to leave for a meeting of course...whatever).
5)  Not long after Pete went to work on our sad copier, I heard the door chime that someone entered the building.  When I went to see who it was, I found an apparently homeless man sitting in our office lobby.  It is not unusual to have people stop by for help, and our pastor meets with each one to determine the best way to help them.  But I was alone yesterday.

(disclaimer:  In telling this story, I by no means want to disrespect this person who has apparently had some hard knocks and was obviously struggling with all sorts of things...so please take no offense.)

When I asked this man if I could help him--he asked to see a pastor.  I explained that unfortunately neither of our pastors were in today. He asked for a food basket.  I told him where the organization we partner with for food is.  He asked what our church was about anyway?  (implying we should really help people, right? ugh.)  I was able to give him a bottle of water and a bag of trail mix we had in our snack cabinet.  I said goodbye to him, and invited him back tomorrow when a pastor could meet with him.  He just sat there.  He was making me pretty uncomfortable.  I consulted with one of our pastors via text who offered to come--but he was quite a ways away at a conference.  I figured by the time he got to me, the situation would resolve.  He knew I had a meeting off-site that I was supposed to be at, and made the wise suggestion that I tell this man that I needed to leave and lock up the building as soon as the xerox man was done, so he would need to leave.  I go out to tell him, but need to wake him up first.  He had konked out on our couch.  He seemed ok with that idea, but didn't leave.  I start getting even more nervous.  I go back into our office and see that Pete the xerox guy was packed up and ready to go.  Yikes!  Our pastor had told me to leave with the xerox guy!  I looked helplessly at Pete and asked him timidly if he would mind staying until the other guy left.  He said, "Absolutely, I completely understand."  Gotta love the xerox man, right?

So Pete stayed.  He stayed when the homeless man asked to use the bathroom.  He stayed while we waited the 15 minutes or so for the man to finish using the bathroom (apparently he disrobed and washed up).  Pete was with me when our visitor finally left and walked me out as well.  Whew!  Thank you Pete.  I can't imagine how I would have felt if I was alone with this guy!  I felt uncomfortable enough as it was.  He probably was harmless, but he sure didn't seem "with it", so who know how irrationally he could behave.  I think xerox-Pete was there a good half-hour longer than he had to be.  Might have thrown off his whole schedule, I don't know.  He was a God-send.  And not just cause he fixed our copier!  I plan to commend him to his supervisors today, if I can figure out how.

So, today, I'm thankful for Pete the xerox guy, who went above and beyond yesterday.  And I'm thankful to God for the way he protects and comforts me in unexpected ways.

What are you thankful for today?  Link up or comment!  Let's fill up blogland with thankfulness!

A few simple instructions for the link up:

-please link to your specific thankful post--not just your blog

-please link back to theGoodlife in your post so others can join the fun!
-feel free to grab the 30 thankful days graphic--I haven't figured out how to make it a button yet.  I'm such a techy, huh?

thirty thankful days-day 14-online techy tutorials?

Every day in November I am posting something I'm thankful for, and I would love to have you join me!  Link to your thankful post below, or write about it in the comments.  Let's be thankful together!

I'm thankful for online tutorials today.  I know this might sound particularly mundane, but as I sit down to type this post, it's what pops to mind first.  Why?  I know you are dying to know...

It was a weird Sunday for things with buttons it seemed.  After our crazy Saturday night, we were off and running to church in the morning--arriving early enough for me to get a few last minute things done before the morning began.  I had a few things to copy--but the office copier malfunctioned and was useless for copying.  Bad day for that.  Then the projector we hook up to my computer to show our music DVD and our power point for our kids' program would not project.  Yikes!  When we finally got it projecting, my computer changed colors and everything looked kinda green.  We tried a few things and just ended up going with the greenish glow.  It was pretty funny as our storyteller talked to the kids about the three colors of yarn used in the tabernacle--and they were all green in the pictures! {smile}  And during the first song we sang, no sound for the first verse.  Ah, joy.

Anyway, let's just say I was not in the mood for my iphone to completely freeze up tonight while trying to do an update.  I didn't know iphones did that.  I mean, I pressed every button, plugged it in and out of the computer, etc. and nothing.  The screen had an apple logo with a empty bar beneath it--and I couldn't get it to go away or do anything.  I showed my hubby and he tried a few things to no avail.  I started down the thought-road of: when would I have time to get it looked at, how I might let people know I'm not getting their messages or phone calls, all the stuff I had on there that I still wanted, etc.

My phone looks like this...Pickle picked the case.  :0)

With only a little bit of panic, I googled it.  "iphone frozen" came up and I clicked it.  It took me through everything I should do and it worked!  I was able to put it into recovery mode and then restore it to a backed up copy of my own iphone data!  I know some of you could do this with one hand tied behind your back, but not me.  I usually defer to someone who knows.  And, I guess I did...but this time the someone was a kind person who thought to post a little online-tutorial.  And it saved my life!!  Well, not really, but I can imagine today being a very different day without my phone.  I guess I've come to rely on it...just a bit.

So, I guess God has been teaching me not to take things for granted these days...working bathrooms, dry carpet and functional phones--I might have ignored those blessings had I not experienced their temporary loss.

So thank you God for online tutorials, and for reminding me of my blessings.

What are you thankful for?  Link up or comment!  Let's fill up blogland with thankfulness!

A few simple instructions for the link up:

-please link to your specific thankful post--not just your blog

-please link back to theGoodlife in your post so others can join the fun!

-feel free to grab the 30 thankful days graphic--I haven't figured out how to make it a button yet.  I'm such a techy, huh?