ut gratulor-to give thanks
I Thessalonians 5:18 calls us to "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ."
I will need this year to truly look through God's eyes to see with a grateful heart. This year I continue to struggle with a myriad of health issues but each day I continue to wake up and take another breath and as many physical, emotional and mental steps as I can accomplish each and every day. I strive to bring God glory in all that I do and some days I am better at this than others just as most of you are. We have our good days and our not so good, our highs and our lows and ups and downs that is the ecclesiastical way of life. A full life will benefit from many seasons and be filled with a great many experiences in this journey we call life. I have been blessed with 42 years such as this. I have lived overseas, enjoyed many mission trips, currently enjoying the academic arena, been married and blessed with two wonderful sons (Kevin & Alex), had many career opportunities and shared the love of family and friends.
I have also suffered through such things as domestic violence, divorce, chronic illness and the loss of loved ones and unfulfilled dreams yet my Lord has seen fit through all these experiences to help me find silver linings in my clouds and given me an uncanny ability to keep moving forward in faith and courage and for this I am most grateful.
This year finds me in the bittersweet arena known as the empty nest. I say it is bittersweet because on one hand I miss my sons so much at times I think my heart must surely have stopped while on the other hand I am so very proud of all that my sons are accomplishing. Alex is pursuing Carpentry and the finishing up of his high school diploma in Curlew WA at Job Corps, he seems to be settling in well, making friends and growing into a mature young man. Kevin has survived Boot Camp & Combat Training in San Diego and is a week away from finishing up his military schooling in North Carolina. Kevin has also blessed me with my first grandchild and although it has been through a tumultuous group of events that no mother desires for her son, David James is the most beautiful grandson ever! The bittersweet in all this is that Alex at age 16 is far from home and Kevin is about to go to the other side of the World to Okinawa for a 2 year stint at his first Permanent Duty Station. Yet I am still able to give thanks because they are healthy, happy and apparently very successful in their own rights...no longer needing me as they once did. I know I will always be their mother and thankfully someone they respect and honor however I too have to enter into a new season.
I am diligently seeking out God's will and discernment, keeping up on all my doctors appointments. Considering working on a book for the chronically ill with a good friend of mine, continuing to co-facilitate my group Living Richly & Fully With Chronic Illness, contemplating becoming a dog owner, where I might move to and striving to finish my Masters Degree by next December. I have also been blessed with a new extended family...my Bravo Family (other family members of Kev's Boot Camp Battalion) we chat daily on our beloved private Face Book page, sharing our joys and tears, red wine and red shirts on Fridays, pictures and prose, prayers and trials...it is truly one of my brightest spots in this past year. I am blessed and honored to call them friends and family.
"O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever." Psalm 30:12
I pray all my friends and family have time to reflect on all that they are thankful for this year and that we are all continually blessed throughout the coming year. I pray that somehow each of us are able to reflect the heart of Christ as we seek to bring him eternal Glory, forever and ever AMEN!
