Miracles, Drawing Near, and Purpose

A year of miracles, a year of drawing near to Christ. This is sort of the theme in our church this year, and I have added to that for my own personal life, that this year is a year of purpose. As in "to purpose to do something." Or "living with purpose." For so long I've wandered in and out of this interest and that hobby, and I find myself wandering in a wasteland of unfinished projects. Not only physical projects like quilts or stitchery or half finished garments stashed behind the sewing machine, but also...how to describe it? Intangible projects; specifically the regaining of my health and healthy body shape and size. Not that my health is bad. In fact, it's very good, but it won't continue that way if I don't get busy.

With all this in mind I have set some goals for this year. Not resolutions, but goals.

 There is a difference, by the way. :-)

My goals include, aside from trusting God for His miracle power to work in and through my life, and drawing near(er) to Him ("...draw near to God and He will draw near to you..." James 4:8), to finish everything I start this year. For this reason, I have been reticent to resurrect the ole' blog here. If I'm going to do it, I need keep up with it. I know it's not a huge deal, but this issue of finishing what I start and being consistent is important to me and I intend to be mindful and live with purpose in every single area of my life. I am purposing to do this. I'm really not sure about the grammar in all of this, but I think I'm getting my point across effectively!

Anyhoo.

I'm going to give the blog some direction. I've never had much direction with it; it's mostly been an avenue of creative outlet for me, and it will continue to be so, but I intend to add a purpose to it this year. I will be posting pictures of our lives, if not on a daily basis then at least regularly, as one (of many!) ways to keep a connection with our daughter, as she lives in another state. As an aside, I thought about taking part in one of these "post a photo a day every day all year" things but I don't want to commit to something I may not follow through with...see above!

So without further ado, I give you a picture of what I am doing every week day at 6am.

Notice the bookmark...a gift from a dear friend. So pretty, and it folds over and has a small flat magnet on each side. 

I get up at o'dark thirty and spend time in prayer and the word of God. I hate getting up, and I do mean hate, but once I'm up (and get caffeinated!) it's my very favorite time of the day. There's something very peaceful and satisfying about the very early morning just before the sun comes up.  The day is filled with potential and possibility and I love that! The virtuous woman in Proverbs 31, the ultimate example of a godly woman, "riseth also while it is yet night..." Throughout scripture we are exhorted to rise early. Maybe I'll do a post about specifically about that. Not now, though, this post is too long as it is!

In Which I Am Thankful for My Family, and Point Out That Safeway Probably Won't Run Out of Food

It's the day before Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. I love that Thanksgiving is right before Christmas. I think we would do well to set aside time purely for giving thanks and cultivating a grateful attitude before the greed season Christmas.

As a side note, and not really the point of this post, but I'm throwing it in:

I'm not a Grinch. Really, I'm not. I love Christmas and all that it means. I decorate, I do a Christmas tree, I cook and bake and I love the gift thing, family traditions, spending extra time with family and friends. I love it all, but underscoring everything during Thanksgiving is the need to remember that we are celebrating God's greatest gift to mankind: Himself. Jesus. This should set the tone for all we do in the upcoming weeks. Also...I stay out of malls this time of year and shop as little as possible. I hate traffic. I hate fighting for parking. I hate that the general population acts like all the groceries in the world are going to run out tomorrow, and that Target, Walmart, Costco, and Best Buy are all going to close their doors forever this afternoon. I hate spending money I have no business spending on cr*p that no one really wants anyway. (I do love it when I find the perfect gift for someone, but it doesn't have to be Christmas for that to happen!)

I really think we need to step back and have a look at what's really important in our all-too-busy lives. Jesus, family, friends, all the God has done, is doing, and will do. This, for me, is what's important in life. A food processor or a bottle of perfume under the tree a month from now won't go amiss, to be sure, but those things are just extras. We need Thanksgiving, the holiday and also in our hearts all year long! We need to remember Who gave us life and everything in it!

Today I am thankful that all three of my kids are here with us (two live here and one flew in yesterday) and that we will all be together as a family with some of our church family joining us for dinner tomorrow. After all the turkey is gone and the pies are reduced to crumbs I want to remember this year as a blessed year, one that we were able to spend together as a family, reach into the lives of others, let them reach into ours, and welcome a new family member, a son-in-law.

My kids doing what they usually do when they are
together: messing with each other. 

Let the Gluttony Begin. Or Not.

Our lives have been super busy lately between the wedding, traveling back and forth to Arizona, visiting with old friends, making new ones (hi Syria!!), returning home and preparing for company and holidays. I love every minute of it, don't get me wrong, but somewhere deep inside me is a desire for a simple uncomplicated life.

A life that does not require caffeine to be enjoyed.

I jest.

Sort of.

The American culture and society is consumed, and I need a stronger word here...maybe obsessed???...need something still stronger, with stuff. Gotta have more, do more, be more, get more, and do it now, immediately, yesterday. I think that somehow we as a culture measure our success and derive our identity from our stuff.

I did that for years. It wasn't something I thought about, but that drive to obtain stuff became a motivating factor for much of what I did and decisions I made.

Recently I have swung in the opposite direction. This is partly based in the fact that I'm tired of shlepping unopened boxes of cr*p around the world every time we move. For example, for how many years is my grandmother's china going to sit unopened, unused, and unloved in my succession of garages? I have memories of her and photographs that I cherish. Her china is not something I particularly like or would use, but I've kept it out of guilt. My change in thinking is mostly based in a desire to focus on what's truly important and not be distracted. I believe that the days until Jesus' return for His church are short and we simply don't have time to faff around with pursuits that take us nowhere as far as eternity is concerned. The important things boil down, as I see it, to two issues:

1. Our personal relationship with Jesus. Is He our Lord and Savior? Are we on our way to Heaven? Is He pleased with our lives? (I am lumping in with this everything that flows out of relationship with Him: maintaining a good marriage, quality parenting, committed friendships, etc...it all starts with Jesus!)

2. Our effectiveness in leading others to Jesus. Are we more concerned with the needs of others than with making sure our own needs are met? Are we telling others about Jesus and showing them how to be saved? Truly, salvation is the greatest need in any of our lives.

The two go hand in hand. Our relationship with Jesus is enhanced as we look outside ourselves to the needs, physical and spiritual, of others, and as we are evangelistic our personal relationship with Jesus grows.

With this in mind, I have been cutting out the unnecessary from my life. This is not a minimalist blog, and the unnecessary looks different for everyone, but my journey begins with getting rid of physical things that are of no use or value to me, including my grandmother's china and also about 50 pounds of excess body weight! --our body is a temple for the Holy Spirit and we are responsible for our stewardship over our bodies...more on that in another post.

With all of that as a backdrop, I turn my attention today to food. Halloween always seems to be the beginning of the "food season." As my dad would say, "Let the gluttony begin!" Food is obviously necessary for our life and health, and of course it's a nice and often needed addition to any get together, but do we really need to junk out? I think not. Today I had coffee (with sugar), oatmeal (with sugar), more coffee (with sugar), lunch followed by a couple of brownies (with sugar) and you know what? I feel terrible. I'm not used to eating so much sugar and I seriously feel like I've been poisoned. At this moment I have acorn squash ready to bake and well seasoned chicken breasts in the oven. I'll steam some broccoli and we'll have a very tasty and healthy dinner. In the morning I'll probably have an egg on whole grain toast and more chicken breast with probably quinoa and black beans and veg for lunch. I know for a fact that this time tomorrow I will feel fantastic. (I also hope to get in a jog, but let's not get TOO ambitious! LOL)

Over the next several months to a year I hope to pare down my life in such a way that I am healthy, my home is a place of refuge and relaxation without clutter everywhere making anyone uptight (about breaking something, spilling something, or feeling overwhelmed by too much stuff), and my outlook and disposition are peaceful.

So! On that note, I am thankful today for healthy food that nourishes my body, not just feeds my sweet tooth.

Image credit

Written on 11/18/11, edited on 11/19/11 to add: I'm also thankful for being able to sleep in today. It's not often that I get to sleep until I wake up, no alarm clock. Yay! Of course the cat decided it was time for me to get up, but whatever. By the way, why do they just sit and stare at you while you are sleeping? Cats are weird.

Back Home Again

"Hey, it's good to be back home again...." What's that old John Denver song? Ok, so I'm dating myself. I'm not ashamed to admit I loved John Denver as a teenager!

Anyway, we're back in the saddle here. Well, sort of! After faffing around with coffee, lost keys, and loading the last of the stuff we were finally on the road at 7.45 am to drive our daughter's car home. She and her husband are on their honeymoon and will fly straight here in a few days. We arrived home about 8.30 pm. (I promptly slept for eleven hours.) Allowing for the time change between Arizona and California we made good time. We don't mess around when we do that drive. It's too far to waste time. We do it in one long straight shot, bringing sandwiches and snacks and energy drinks (Hello purple Monsters! Gotta have those!!) or just grab something fast and eat in the car. Yesterday it was almonds and coffee on the way out of town, Quiznos and purple Monsters in Blythe, and cheddar flavored chex mix in nowhere-ville California.

Yum.

Not.

Actually the Quiznos was pretty good.

Anyway, we grab some food, gas up, and hit the road. I usually drive the first half and then my hubby finishes up. We tried it the other way around once and it was not a good scene. Let's just say that waking up in the opposite lane facing oncoming cars is NOT a good idea! Granted, on that particular trip we had traveled overnight instead of starting out early in the morning, but sleeping while driving is probably not a good idea. Hubby is good for either shift, but I can only do the first one if we want to arrive alive.

Click this link if you wonder what we've been doing for the last week! This will also explain why my Month of Thanksgiving posts have been sketchy. I tried to post daily. I really did. There was just too much going on and posting from my phone was too much hassle. I was going to go back and clean up the ones I did but...nah. 

My thankful post for today is associated with the link. I am so thankful for longevity, history, and heritage in the Kingdom of God.

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Fig Trees and Early Mornings

November 3rd. Day three of a month of Thanksgiving.

Today I was reading in the book of Mark (also found in Matthew) about the fig tree that Jesus cursed when it bore no fruit and the tree died. I was a bit confused about what this all means. Figs were not in season, yet Jesus expected the tree to bear fruit at that time.

Isn't that unfair? Isn't that unreasonable?

No. There is a lesson there for us. By the way, all scripture is given to us by God for our instruction and guidance and the answer to every single situation in life can be found within the pages of the Bible. Just thought I'd throw that in as an extra! :-) Anyway, there is a lesson in that scripture that my husband pointed out to me. God expects us to be fruitful for His kingdom, and there is no excuse for unfruitfulness. Even when, in our own minds or by our limited human understanding, we think that we have a good reason to sit back on our laurels and let someone else do the work, we are wrong.

But it's impossible for a tree to bear fruit when it's not in season!

Not true, because with God all things are possible, even bearing fruit out of season. Dare I say, especially bearing fruit out of season! God demonstrates His miracle power when things happen that are beyond our understanding.

I am thankful for God's Word that brings direction and help to our lives, and also gives us little nuggets of His character and who He is. I've been getting up daily at 5.30 to pray and read my bible and I have to be honest...it's tough. Some days are harder than others and I often just want to crawl back into bed (like today...it was raining and my pillows looked so cozy!) but I'm always, always glad when I'm up and at it. (I set up my coffee at night so it's ready for me in the morning...a little luxury to help me start the day at o'dark thirty.)

"...those that seek me early shall find me." Proverbs 8:17
"Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalms 119:11

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I Just Wanted to be Sure of You

Happy November! Happy Thanksgiving month! This month I will be joining together with my friend Anne and posting daily about something I am thankful for. It may be a big thing with pictures and the whole nine yards, or it may a small one liner with no picture at all (thinking of the trip I'm about to take to my daughter's wedding...limited internet access other than my phone...yada yada), but one way or another, I think Thanksgiving is a very important holiday important to remember and our culture is rapidly forgetting.

Our society is way too caught up with stuff and materialism, especially where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area! I would like to take this month and not focus on the bling of Christmas, but focus on thankfulness, not only for where we came from as a country but in general. We must maintain a thankful attitude if we are to appreciate Christmas as truly an honoring of the birth of our Lord and Savior, not just jingle bells and presents.

Yes, I will be working on some Christmas ideas and gifts during this month. Three weeks in December is not enough time to pull together some of the gifts I would like to give this year (hint: they are coming out of my craft studio!) but my thinking is to focus on living thankfully.

So! With that as an intro, today, November 1st, I am thankful for friends. I am thankful for friends especially who are willing to overlook our mistakes, faults and shortcomings, and just love us, no matter what. Thank you.

She Wears Purple

I've created a new blog to run alongside this one, She Wears Purple. You can find a link on my sidebar. My recent posting schedule not withstanding, I plan to post to both of them. Maybe I'll combine them eventually, but for now I like the idea of having one blog dedicated to just daily musings about this and that, sometimes silly nonsense and other times more serious thoughts, and the other dedicated only to my Christianity.

Not that I separate the two in real life, by the way. My salvation defines everything I think and do and am, but I like to have my thoughts organized.

Ok...so I like every single area of my life organized. Ok, Ok! I'm over the top about my lists and organization, but God is helping me! ;-)

Hope to see you there!

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Shadow of the Almighty

I've been fascinated by the life of Jim Elliot for years. Recently I've been reading  Shadow of the Almighty. I'm only about a third of the way though so far but I can't put it down. Can I just say...

Wow.

I cannot even express how convicting and inspiring his writings are.

Makes me search my heart to see what my motives are for everything I do and drives me to want to be all I can be for Jesus, who was and is and will be all He can be for me.

This in itself is amazing. That God would do such a thing for me.

And you.

And every single person who ever lived and ever will live.

Makes me realize that so much of my life is just fluff.

Pinterest? Fluff. 100%. Unequivocally and without a doubt, fluff.

Blogging? Fluff. For the most part. Some aspects of blogging can a great blessing and very helpful, (note: you might want to right click and open this link in a new tab or window because for some reason that site won't let you click your back button to come back here) and for that I am grateful but mostly it's fluff.

Exercise and eating right? Not fluff, so much, but profitable for only a little in light of eternity, as the scripture tells us in 1 Timothy 4:8. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. I love Elliot's take on fitness: that he wanted to keep himself healthy in order to perform his physical best on the mission field. He wanted to be prepared to do hard physical work in third world situations and be in strong health to facilitate the preaching of the gospel.

Jim Elliot focused everything in his life...and I do mean everything...around knowing God as intimately as possible this side of Heaven and writes continuously of his experiences as he reads and studies the Word of God. 

Wow.

Read it.

Thank you Shanna, for giving me the book.

This all brings me back to the idea of focus, as I've mentioned in a couple of previous posts and will be exploring further. What should be the priorities of our lives? What is truly significant?

More later....

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Without Complexity: Part One

Read my first post about focus here. 
When I wrote that post I didn't intend to make it into a series, but I feel inspired to do so with the following post and some others along the same lines that I have brewing. You can find links to all of the posts in this "Without Complexity" series at the side bar to the right. 

My thoughts lately have been about living an uncomplicated life; about learning how to be an uncomplicated person. Our lifestyles as Americans have become way too complex and stressful. If the trends in many of the blogs that I read are correct, I'm not alone in thinking along these lines. We so easily lose sight of our purpose in the busyness of life. 

I've been inspired lately to simplify the way I live. This includes everything from decluttering my physical surroundings to the way I think and process life. At the moment I am contemplating the issue of focus. This is the beginning. Are we able to focus on the important, or the task at hand and finish it without being bogged down and caught up in tangents?

My son unknowingly taught me a lesson recently. He was helping me edit and process some of my photos. We were uploading some of my images to his computer and I mentioned that I had other pictures on my flash card that he hadn't yet seen but would be interested in. They didn't pertain to our project, but I knew he'd want to see them nonetheless. He went straight to the images he was after for our current project and didn't even have a quick glance through the others. I silently noted his single-mindedness. We finished our project quickly and efficiently and moved on from there to other things. We didn't get bogged down, sidetracked or distracted because he was focused on the project at hand.

I find that I can waste much time being distracted. The things that capture my attention aren't wrong but they are usually things that keep me from finishing a project in a timely manner, or sometimes even from finishing at all. I've been susceptible to distraction for most of my life. I tend to flit around from here to there and back again and spend a whole day accomplishing nothing of any value. Value, of course, is subjective, but I can fritter away a lot of time with nothing I value to show for it. And more importantly, I can fritter time away with nothing of eternal value (value in God's estimation) to show for it. I want the testimony of my life in general to be that I pleased God and was productive in the things that matter.

In the past, and especially as a child and teenager, I often didn't complete projects that I started. My tendency has been to find the easy way and discontinue pursuits that required me to learn something new or perfect a skill in order to excel. Not that I haven't excelled at certain pursuits...it's just that I tend to stick with what comes easily for me and avoid challenges. This is another subject altogether: challenges and the growth that comes from rising to meet them. I won't go there for now, instead I will focus (!) on the subject at hand!

Focus.

I lacked focus. And apparently I still do. (See above paragraph!)

I believe that a short attention span in adults is usually a result of lack of discipline of the mind. The causes for this are myriad and the purpose of this post is not an expose on those causes. I'll save that for another time. Maybe. (Again! Focus!)

So. My focus for the present is just that: focus. Single mindedness. How to obtain discipline of mind.

The Bible tells us that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8). It also tells us in another portion of scripture that the people who know their God shall be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11:33b) (emphasis mine). This means that the first key to doing exploits, or productivity, as I perceive it, is to know God. When I am double minded and vacillate between this and that my productivity is minimal. Productivity isn't the be all and end all of life, but I believe it's a critical element in maintaining one's dignity as a human being. So the key here is knowing God. The bottom line in all of life, really, is knowing God.



Photo credit: http://www.c4rlh.com/iphone/free-wallpapers/

Fifty Things

This gorgeous quilt can be found here. Actually, the whole website is super duper inspirational for me. (See #15 of my list below!) 

My husband turned 49 a few days ago. Some of his friends have already been ribbing him about turning 50. I'm looking down the barrel of 50 in a couple of years so this seems like a good time to make some goals. So! This is my list of 50 things to do by the time I turn 50. Not sure I'll get them all done, but I'm a list person and it gives me some focus. Focus! Reminds me...but I'll do another post about that and try to remain focused on one post at a time (haha!).... My inspiration for this came from this post.

1.Lead someone to Jesus.
2. Lose 50 pounds. At least.
3. Be able to run 5 miles easily. 
4. Do my part to put us in a position where my husband and I can both quit our jobs and he can pastor full time.
5. If I still need to make an income then I want to do it by making stuff.
6. Finish the red, white and blue quilt I started for my son many moons ago.
7. Make a quilt for our bed.
8. Make a fall themed quilt.
9. Get all my photo albums scanned and saved electronically.
10. Organize all my digital pictures on my computer in a way that makes sense.
11. Get strong. See numbers 2 and 3. It's all related.
12. Be able to do 10 pull ups (chin ups) (again see 2 and 3 and also 11).
13. Make a string quilt. This may be one of the quilts listed above.
14. Learn how to free motion quilt.
15. Learn to quilt in general! (See numbers 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14!)
16. Lead someone to Jesus. (I know this is here twice. It's at the top and bottom of my list because it is the most important thing in my life, from beginning to end. Everything else is good and important to me, but people have eternal value, and that's more important than everything else put together.
17. ....................................   --crickets--  ...............................

Ok. So maybe I can't come up with 50 things. That's a lot. This list is in no way complete even though I can't put my finger on more things I want to accomplish right at the moment. Also, I think if I add much more to this list I'll lose my focus. See my next post for my thoughts on focus! (Let's hope I post it sooner rather than later, as "later" seems to be my custom lately!)

Update! Between the time I started this post and published this post I gave my two weeks notice! (See #4) It wasn't an easy decision, but it was the right one. More on this in a future post as well.

Heartwork

This weekend I'm taking part in an online writing course sponsored by the lovely Kate. I did the same workshop last month and discovered some "hidden treasure" in my heart that I wanted to record on paper. I had a hard time though, possibly because I'm not in the habit of writing regularly, not to mention really writing from my heart. This time around I'm working on getting my emotions (mostly about growing older) coherent in my mind so I can journal them. Though I guess that's all part of journaling...the coherent and the incoherent! Goodness knows that the emotions of a woman are sometimes the farthest thing from coherent!! Haha! Also, I'm cautious about what to share here, because this is such a public forum and I tend to be a private person about what's going on in the depths of my heart. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but it is what it is.

Anyway.

I'd like to share a quote by Dr. Susan Love (surgeon and proponent of breast cancer research) that has made me think deeply about this season of my life:

As women, we're lucky because we are reminded in a very physical way that this is mid-life, so we can re-evaluate what we are and where we are going...It's very healthy to view menopause as a chance to recharge and rebuild.


This pretty much sums up what I believe concerning mid-life as women. I think we have many reference-point opportunities throughout our life to evaluate and re-evaluate, but menopause has to be one of the if not the most poignant. What a wonderful opportunity! A challenge, to be sure, but an opportunity none the less.

For me, it's a time when my two of my three children have grown up and moved out on their own to pursue their own lives and destinies, and my youngest is grown, soon to be moving out as well. I've looked at myself with myriad emotions and finally come to the understanding that I am not defined by my children. I am not defined by my husband. I am not even defined by myself!

By the way, away with all women's magazines, articles, and popular thinking that declare the need for "Me time!" and "I need/must have/ have to"....fill in the blank. Today's society and culture are super duper geared toward women placing themselves first. "If I don't take care of myself I won't be able to take care of anyone else." Rubbish. Not that we let ourselves go and don't guard our hearts and minds and emotions, and take care of our bodies, but this is a big subject for another post. I do plan to explore it, but not right this minute.

So.

I am defined by who God created me to be. That He created me, first to have relationship with Him, and then to be instrumental in helping others into relationship with Him. It has been so easy, for the twenty five years I've been raising children, to hide in my role as a mother. Motherhood is a wonderful, God-given role, specifically designed by Him for women. Mothers are vital and instrumental in the lives of our children on infinite levels, but one must continually seek first the Kingdom of God though the years of raising children and beyond. Part of this seeking first is that when one's life roles change, one needs to roll with those changes and not freak out! Menopause is a very interesting time because one's body is experiencing hormonal changes second only to puberty and in this chick it translates to a very emotional time.

So, with all that as a preface, I am taking part in this weekend workshop and discovering some truths about myself, my motherhood, my role as a wife, growing older, and my relationship with God.

I'll record as much as I can with pen and paper and share some of that here as well.

Smile! You Are Beautiful!

  

Years ago, when I was probably about sixteen or seventeen, I found some notes in my car. In those days, and in the town where I lived, we never bothered to roll up our car windows in the summer, never mind lock the doors. I had gone into some shop or another and when I came out a note had been placed on the driver's seat of my car that said, "Smile, God loves you." I thought that was kind of cool, and I did smile. I went on my merry way and stopped at another shopping center for another errand. When I came out I found another note on the same kind of paper with a smile-y face and the message, "Jesus cares." I have to admit, at that point I was a bit freaked out. I remember looking quickly around to try to see who had put it there. Who was following me?

Nothing transpired from those events...no one approached me, no one followed me home, nothing. Even though it was kind of freaky that they had followed me from store to store, I thought it was nice that someone had taken the time to tell me that God loved me. This was not something I was not familiar with at that time in my life. Two years and a lot of heartache would pass before I met Jesus personally and made Him Lord of my life.  I can only conclude, to this day, some 30 years later, that it had to be either someone I knew who preferred to remain anonymous, or someone who simply had a heart to reach out to others but for whatever reason didn't want to go about it directly. Whatever the case, I have carried in my heart that memory and the little spark of happiness those gestures gave me for these 30 years. I seriously believe that it was in those moments that God began to deal with my heart and draw me to Himself, culminating with the start of a new life when I received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour two or three years later.

This memory came back to me the other day when I came across this:

www.operationbeautiful.com

Photo credit:
flickr.com/photos/rayguntv/2306213245/

On Thanks Giving

So the mojo may be back, but it's taking me in other directions. Things have been pretty hectic, which is not unusual! The bread was only okay. Kind of dense and I wasn't thrilled with the flavor. I used several different types of flour in an attempt to make it super duper healthy, and it was, but the flavor was sacrificed. I'll keep working on it.

I have been thinking about thankfulness recently, with Thanksgiving approaching.

Thanksgiving.

Thanks plus giving.

Thanks. Giving.

Here's a thought: Giving should be a result of thankfulness. Not only do we give thanks, but because of our thanks we give. I am thankful for a Savior who gave Himself for me. My reasonable response should be to give (of myself, my money, my time, everything) because without Jesus giving Himself for me, I would have nothing and I would be nothing with a capital L. L for Loser. This is not self deprecating. This is a fact.

So with that I am compiling a list of things I am thankful for in another blog. You can see it here.

Photo credit:
http://gocanada.about.com/b/2007/09/01/the-best-places-to-see-autumn-colors-in-canada.htm