Monday, November 09, 2009

Whatcha gonna see here?

This blog...if I can keep it up this time around...will be a combination of many things. I might talk about politics one post, faith and spirituality and God in another, my job, my kids, my family, my friends, my life in general on any given day. There is probably not going to be much rhyme or reason, which happens to be very similar to the way my mind works.

I do plan on posting every Tuesday (at the bare minimum) to share things that I am grateful for. I don't give nearly enough credit to God for the blessings and challenges that have shaped my life, and that is definitely where the credit goes.

Unrelenting Gratitude

It is oh so easy to be thankful for the good stuff that happens in our lives. It is much harder to give thanks for the tough stuff that may actually shape our character and spirit more. I came across this quote today and it serves as a grand reminder to praise God in all circumstances.

"To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives--the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections-- that requires hard spiritual work.
Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.
Let us not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God."
~Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

An interesting play on light in Ethan's room. The sun was shining through the string holes in his blinds and it was casting the most amazing light! No one else in our house appreciated it, but it brought me a little bit of joy to see something so beautiful come from something so normal.