It's Friday!

And Friday is a very special day! It marks the end of the school/work week and the begining of the weekend full of family time! I am ever so grateful for the weekend and the time to spend with my husband and kids <3 While I do not work outside the home they are busy with work and school so that it is only a few hours a day we have together... that is until friday afternoon! From Friday afternoon to Monday morning it is all about us! I LOVE IT!

Also Friday is Celebrate Recovery~ an awesome and amazing program that has blessed my life in so many ways and helped God to make transformations in my life and the lives of many others! How awesome that I am blessed to have my Celebrate Recovery family in my life!

Life is good~ it is Friday~ and God continues to shower His blessings on my life! Now to get breakfast for my crew <3

God Bless all of you! And may you find much to be grateful for today!

Batteling Depression

Part of my Gratitude List came from a time in my life when I was batteling depression. I was oerwhelmed with all of life and it's happenings. So I turned to gratitude as a way to show my mind that life really wasn't as bad as it was trying to make things out to be.

I honestly LOVE my life, love the people in it, and enjoy so many things. Yet depression will sneak in and try to steal the happiness life brings me. So instead of being joyful to have a cup of coffee with God in the morning, thoughts of not being able to afford to go to Starbucks with friends for coffee will come in. Instead of being grateful for for all the birds singing in the trees I will become annoyed at the noise, missing the music.

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Taking my thoughts captive... making them obedient to Christ... Following Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

Today I woke with that dark cloud of depression hanging over me. Although I could think of many things that bring me joy, that I am grateful for, I wasn't getting the emotional lift from it that I wanted and needed. Then as I was looking for answers on how to deal with this... God sent me a Word. Recently God and I have been growing closer the relationship becoming more than I could have ever hoped for. What is happening today is Satan trying to interfer with that relationship. Placing doubt, depression, thoughts of lack in my mind to come between the Lord and I. My boys crying, fussing, needing more of me while I had a list of things to accomplish that I couldn't get to.

What a lightening of spirit when I realized that this was because I am building a better relationship with God. So a quick talk with God, giving Him my burdens, casting my cares on Him, realizing that no matter how things may appear God is working ALL things to the good in my life.

Deuteronomy 7:12-15


If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you. You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor any of your livestock without young. The LORD will keep you free from every disease.

100 Things!

1. Morning conversations with God
2. Knowing God is there for me
3. God's little miracles in my everyday life (like that parking spot that comes open or finding that lost item in the first place you look)
4. That first cup of coffee in the morning
5. Waking up to sunbeams coming through my bedroom window
6. The MOST AWESOME family:
7. David
8. Robert
9. Eugene
10. Joshua
11. Katie
12. Elizabeth
13. Allen
14. Blaine
15. Tony
16. Tabitha
17. Jennifer
18. The Most amazing friends!
19. Mary
20. Diane
21. Samantha
22. All my other Family!
23. All my other friends!
24. My AMAZING Church Family!
25. Being able to read my Bible without fear
26. Being able to share the Word with others without threat of being Jailed
27. Technology that allows me to listen to Worship music whenever I want!
28. Being able to teach little ones about The Lord
29. SINGING praise to the LORD! I make a joyful noise anyway
30. Bountiful Table set before my family
31. Being able to enjoy fresh foods
32. Having all our food needs met
33. Our home~ although I keep praying for a new home that has things this one doesn't~ I really am grateful that we do have this home.
34. Electricity
35. Running Water
36. INTERNET hehehe
37. Cable TV
38. Sunshine
39. Rain
40. Rainbows
41. Playing Pooh Sticks
42. Snow
43. Snowball fights
44. Puddle Jumping
45. Dancing in the Rain
46. Sledding in the snow
47. Picnics in the park
48. Swinging in the swings
49. Fishing in the Sun
50. Laying in the grass watching clouds float by
51. Birds singing in the trees
52. Watching the deer eat in the backyard
53. Watching the squirrel scamper across the neighbors roof
54. Watch the hummingbird flutter at the feeder
55. Wind chimes
56. Crickets chirping on a summer evening
57. Kite flying!
58. Laying out next to the river and hearing it's sounds
59. Lilacs in Bloom
60. Sunflowers waving in the breeze
61. Roses sending off their fragrance for all to enjoy
62. Scentsy (because it makes my house smell yummy!)
63. Apricots fresh of the trees
64. Cherry Picking
65. Did I mention snow?
66. Story time with my little ones
67. Watching my little ones make new discoveries
68. Snuggled up with my babies (even the big ones :) )
69. Air Conditioning :) during those hot summer months
70. Heat in the house (in winter of course)
71. Soft fuzzy blankets
72. Cuddly Puppies
73. Purring Kittens
74. Hot Showers
75. Crossroads Ministries
76. Celebrate Recovery
77. My husband having work
78. My minivan <3
79. A washer and dryer (live without one for a while and you will be grateful too!)
80. Prozac (long story)
81. The medical era we live in
82. Cell Phones (they have changed the way we communicate!)
83. My camera! I love to capture the moments of my life!
84. Days when I can Sleep in
85. Starbucks!
86. Coffee with friends
87. Long soaking Bubble Baths
88. Candles
89. Pedicures (oh they feel so wonderful!)
90. Shopping! It can be so much fun!
91. Any day spent with friends and family!
92. Knowing the Peace of God~ it truly does surpass all understanding!
93. Knowing that God loved me so much that He offered His son as a sacrafice
94. Jesus loved me so much He was willing to die for me
95. Becuase of God sending His son and His son being willing to die for us all I have a personal relationship with the Lord
96. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit!
97. Being able to look around me and see all that the Lord has done!
98. Having a heart that seeks that relationship with God
99. Knowing that God will intercede for my children who do not yet believe
100. And NUMBER 100~ God giving me a grateful heart!

Good Morning!

 Today my gratitude list is amazingly long~ from the basics of my friends, family, home, and needs met to all the wonders of nature that God gives us. But I sat here this morning thinking, my list growing and growing (I could do well over 100 things today) and I thought about all the things I don't have that I am grateful not to have in my life. Sounds wierd doesn't it? But seriously, people I know are battling some pretty aweful things in their life and they would be ever so grateful if they could be relieved of the struggle. Yet those who aren't dealing with this or that forget how easy it would be for them to be afflicted with the struggle.

So today, my gratitude list already long for all the wonders in my life is also including things like not being afflicted with chronic pain or disease, being free from addiction, not having any sever weather conditions to contend with, being free from a government that could kill because I express myself, and oh so many other things. My life is free of abuse, free of satanic influence, free of starvation... I am truly blessed in all that I do not have to contend with!

Today's Gratitude List

Someone asked the other day "What makes you happy?" There are so many things in life that bring me happiness but I realized as I thought about it that it totally isn't about what MAKES me happy but my attitude about all of it... I can think about all the things in life I don't have and be miserable or I can focus on all the amazing things in life and be happy.

Today I am truly grateful for learning it is about my attitude so that I can be happy everyday in every situation because I know that no matter how bad it might seem at that very moment~ all things are working together to bring me into a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father, to make me the person He desires me to be, and put me on the path He has selected for me.

Life is good! I am so grateful for everything God has put in my life and even for some of those things He has taken from life... It is all so awesome <3