Thank you. Two small words meant to embody thoughts, sentiments, and more gratitude than I can ever express or understand. Yet each day I wake up with these two words in my mind.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. ~1 Chronicles 16:34
This verse is closest to giving voice to my feelings, emotions and sense of appreciation. God has been and ever will be faithful to me. My response is to continually give him my thanks.
However, those two tiny words seem so insignificant given the scope of all I have been given, especially this year:
- Health and the ability to be well after injuries and surgeries
- Family and the love and gift they provide me with each day
- Friends who have chosen to love me like family over and over again
- The skill to help others be the best they can be while they teach me to see each day as a gift
- The capacity to put words together to benefit others
- New knowledge and avenues to share God and His words with more people every day
- The gift of dreams coming to fruition and the ability to enjoy, savor and share them
- The growing aptitude to love, teach, and let go as we watch our children follow their own paths
- The continual gift of God’s presence with every step of everyday
Whether joy-filled, difficult, exasperating, tedious or inspirational, He is here with me every moment of everyday. For His constant presence, I am most thankful.
Emmanuel-“God with us” has truly taken on a deeper meaning for me this year.
I have always known His presence, but He has become a more permanent and inexplicable part of me.
I don’t have to fear, or if I do, I call on the One who is with me to calm those fears. I don’t have to worry but if I do, I give them to the part of me that is Him.
This knowing, this sense of His presence has so blessed me in my life, but no more than this year. I have taken big steps, gone through major things with a sense of calmness I have never before known. It is God with me.
As I end this year, I share this to thank you as well. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. I am so blessed you are with me as I experience the thankfulness and peace I have found by following His footprints.
I follow Him and abide in peace, even amid the chaotic world around me. If I find myself losing that peace, I reach out for Him. His presence and peace are ever present.
It is my prayer you have His peace as well. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post on one way I have found His peace more deeply. Until then, may you have a thank-filled last day of 2014. I eagerly anticipate our continued adventures….