A Grateful Heart

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I thought I had messed up a phone interview impacting a change in direction that I've felt God leading me to. I also mentioned that while I felt that I had failed God, He reminded me that He will never fail me; and that if this is really God's will and the timing is right, than even I couldn't mess it up. You guessed it! In spite of myself, I received a phone call yesterday giving me the approval to go ahead to the next step of this process. I was so excited! Not just because of getting to move forward with this, but because it was so obvious to me that God has had His hand in this process every step of the way, especially in changing my heart and mindset towards it. Like I said the other day, it's crazy to me that I got so upset when I though I messed this up, when just a few short weeks ago I didn't even want to think about the idea of walking down this particular path that He has laid in front of me! On my own, my reaction would have been "whew... I got off the hook with that one!" But instead, God has opened my heart to this next step, and has given me the confidence to know that although I question my own ability to succeed in this, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So my heart is grateful for new opportunities, and especially, for my growing relationship with Christ. Which, by the way, I'm learning that having a personal relationship with God comes from being obedient to what He tells us, and that our relationship with Him begins because He pursues us -He is the only One who can create that desire in us to seek a personal relationship with Jesus. Wow, how amazing is that?!

My heart is grateful today, too, for the simple, daily moments with my family. My baby boy, Kevin, is turning five on Saturday, so we spent yesterday afternoon baking, icing, and sprinkling cookies for him to take to school. All too often I forget how special these moments really are. All Kevin could talk about the last few days (except for how many more days it was until his birthday, of course!) was getting to make those cookies! I sometimes wonder at what age it is that we lose that enthusiasm for the little things. I'm praying that from this point forward, I will begin seeing those "small" things as the "really big" things of life - that is my prayer today for you, as well.

My daughter, Kelly, came home from college yesterday for spring break, so I am looking forward to sharing many of those "really big" moments with her over the next week and a half. One of our firsts in going to be taking Kevin to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday (how blessed am I to have an 18 year old who is truly excited to get to go to Chuck E. Cheese with her little brother?!). I was also blessed to enjoy a couple of great evenings with my 16 year old son, Walter, over the last few days. One was getting to have a date night with him Saturday and staying out VERY late to see a movie with him (only for my children would I go to see a three hour movie at ten o'clock at night!). I also got to go with him to his wrestling banquet on Monday. To be honest, I'm ashamed to say that I really wasn't looking forward to spending the evening with a bunch of people I don't know and spending several hours listening to a coach talk. However, it turned out to be a great time; and the events of the evening provided a lot of great things for us to talk about after the banquet. Those are the moments that matter! My heart is thankful that the Lord keeps reminding me of this, and allowing me to experience these moments even when I am not looking at them as I should.

Of course, I can't have a conversation about gratitude and special moments without including my husband, Jeff! We have been married 21-1/2 years, and I know it sounds corny, but we grow closer and fall more in love with each other with every passing year. We have learned so much about each other and about ourselves, and we have grown so much in our personal walks with Jesus over the years. We have been going through the Fireproof series at church and in our small group, and the conversations that have stemmed from those sessions and from our homework each week have been great. Just the fact that we have been setting aside a particular time each week to go through the couples section and talk have been great moments together. Plus, we talk a lot more on a daily basis, and look forward to hearing about each other's day. Of course, we've had our share of bumps in the road, and even all of the changes that God has had us make over the last couple of years, although good, have had some challenges that went along with them. As always, though, God uses everything for good, and these rough spots have only made us stronger as individuals, strengthened our marriage, and deepened our personal relationships with the Lord. In talking about our marriage vows in the Fireproof series, we realized that we both took our vows very seriously, we did not really look at them as a vow between us and God. We asked Him to bless our marriage, we were married in a church, and we knew that God was "over" our marriage; but we really didn't make our commitments with Him as the center. We look back now and wonder how we ever made it through some of the tough times in our marriage, as parents, and in life in general - but God is faithful, and He helped us through in spite of ourselves! What a difference it makes to live life with God as the center of everything, especially our marriage!

So what are you grateful for today? I encourage you to take time today to think of all of the special moments that you've had recently. Personally, I know that I am much closer to God and hear His voice more clearly when I have an attitude of gratitude. And I have so much to be thankful for!