Grateful Friday

I'm so grateful that the LORD is with us during the hard times and the good, during difficult trials and times of complete joy.  I'm so thankful for the peace that passes all human understanding.

I'm grateful for our good weather in Leavenworth, and for good fellowship and friendship (and great burgers, too!).

I'm thankful for good wine and sweet friendship.  I'm thankful for restful sleep and things to challenge my intellect.  I'm thankful for the last generation and the next.  And I'm thankful for the stunningly beautiful fall colors on the trees.

I'm grateful that my husband and the boys get to go hunting/camping - what a great vacation for them.  They really enjoy it!  I am very grateful that my husband has a good job with good benefits and that he can take a long, much-needed vacation because he has worked for his employer for decades.  I am so very grateful for the provision of HaShem!

I'm grateful for my children.

I'm so grateful for payday!  :-)

I'm grateful for fun projects to work on!!

I'm grateful for blogger - I would have never guessed that I would so enjoy writing.  

I am thankful to the LORD for contrasts.  These are necessary and it just makes me appreciate things so much more clearly.  You can't appreciate the light without the dark, nor the good without the bad.  So, I'm grateful for all the experiences He gives me, even the difficult ones.  If it were not for some in my life that are hurtful and insensitive, I'd never know how wonderfully supportive and loving my real friends truly are.  And only He knows just how much I appreciate my true friends...it's more than words can say!

I'm grateful for fleece and for the heater in my car.
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”
~Herm Albright
"...the LORD gives us experiences and the insight that comes from them for a purpose. Not to make us feel shameful, but to help others that are going through similar difficulties. We all make choices and live with the consequences...both good and bad. And it's those experiences that bond us to one another with compassion."  I'm thankful that the LORD has given me compassion for others, both near and far.  And not just for those that appear 'righteous', but for the down-trodden and lonely, the sad and the victimized, for the widow and the orphan.  LORD, please enable me to show compassion and love to those that need it the most.

I'm grateful for the memories - I will hold them dear always.

What are you grateful for this week?

Comments

Ari C'rona said…
Well, your words of thanksgiving refresh my spirit today, my friend!

I, too, am so thankful for my friends - people who actually like me and want to spend time with me. How nice!

I'm so grateful for those times when the Master grants me repentance when I need it. I'm grateful, too, for His forgiveness.

And, for those times of joy and gladness in the midst of hard things. Our Master always knows what we need at the moment. :o)
Mama Cache said…
How thankful I am for a loving God who hears our cries, receives and answers our prayers -- sometimes instantaneously -- and draws near to us when we draw near to Him.

Thankful, too, that He enables His own to hear His voice.
Stacy Christian said…
Oh! I have a poem that I need to send to you! It started running through my head along with your contrasts paragraph.
Here's the poem that Stacy was referring to - I thought it most appropriate to post here:

LORD, HIGH AND HOLY, MEEK AND LOWLY,

Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest well,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

(the book Valley of Vision is a collection of puritan prayers and devotions, just in case you don't already know.)