Thankful Thursday is Back!

On Sunday, our pastor gave a GREAT sermon on thankfulness (it's not available via podcast yet, but when it is, I'll post it). Now let me tell you, I love our church. And most Sundays I walk away with more knowledge and a little something rolling around in my mind. But this Sunday was different. For some reason, this sermon really struck a cord. The gist of the sermon was this: Thanksgiving is a time of year to be thankful for what we have, but a lot of Thanksgiving is now spent talking about what more we can get the next day (Black Friday).

It's funny because I probably hear these same sentiments each year around this time, "what are you thankful for?" People often ask around the Thanksgiving table. But this Sunday, it really resonated with me. I walked out of the service feeling as if I needed to make a change. Ronnie's very good at being thankful. I can't tell you how many times a week he'll stop and say, "Man, we're blessed aren't we?" And I always agree. But rarely do I sit back on my own and really think about how much I have and how thankful I am for what we've been blessed with. It's so easy in a new house to think, "ok, now we just need to get x, y, and z to make it complete." Or with all the upcoming baby makin' stuff, I all too quickly I allow my mind to think, "why does it have to be so difficult to have kids?" Instead, I should be thinking, "Wow, how blessed are we that we own our own home?" or "How incredible that people who are infertile can now have children. We are so blessed to have great options." And those are just a few options. How many more basic things do we take for granted? Like not fretting over gas money; access to good doctors; a fridge full of food; a cupboard full of meds that we only paid co pays for; two working legs to run; I could go on forever.

Therefore, Thankful Thursday is back! For the next several months, I want to take the time to really appreciate all that we have been given. So each Thursday Ronnie and I are going to write about what we're thankful for. Some weeks it may be silly little things like, "this week I'm really thankful for a dishwasher, because man I hate washing dishes", while other weeks may be bigger items. I just want to make the conscious effort to rework my brain and my thoughts. Truthfully, to make my attitude a little more like my husbands' and A LOT more like it should be. One tip our pastor suggested in his sermon was to set aside 5 minutes a day and write out what you're thankful for. So I'm going to try this for the month of December. Anyone want to join me?! If so, leave a comment to say you're in and what you're thankful for this week. If we get enough people that want to participate, we'll set up a blog hop!

I'll leave you with what I'm thankful for this week:

1. A helpful husband - call it newly wedded bliss or just one helpful husband, but Ronnie does A LOT around the house...probably more than I do. He hung 2500 christmas lights (yes, 25 boxes!) all on his own, installed lights in the house, and cleaned this weekend.
2. A roof over my head - this one may sound a little silly (because it's so basic), but with it getting cold outside, I am so thankful that I have a place to go to get out of the cold. I can't make it 5 minutes outside without freezing these days (and we live in Arizona!)
3. Hot chocolate - Can you tell it's getting cold out? After a FREEZING run, I like nothing more than to hold a toasty mug of hot chocolate in my hands.
4. Other CF spouses - This week, I've emailed back and forth with another CF wife. I can't tell you how awesome it is to talk with someone who's been there and done that. It's nice to know that there are people there to answer questions and learn from, when needed!

So that's it for today. Hopefully next week I'll have a better list after taking 5 minutes a day of reflection. Who wants to join me this month?!