Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday! Just sitting here in the stillness of the morning to reflect on the many things I have to be grateful to God for.

• Special friends, Andrea & Jean who celebrate a birthday today! Sorry I didn't get cards to you. I'm really slipping!
• Having the chance to catch up with dear friends via the phone this week. There are some weeks where it doesn't seem like I have the time to even look at the phone. I hate that feeling and am glad there was some breathing room this week to visit.
• Mentoring Moms on Monday night reminding me of the importance of taking time to nurture friendships and special relationships.
• Ladies Bible Class on Tuesday reminding me to work harder at making prayer a HABIT and to keep my prayer life fresh.
• Hearing Lindy sing and sing and sing.
• Hearing/watching Lindy express unsolicited and unprompted emotion, affection, and gratitude.
• Sweet friends, Ellen & Erin who celebrate a birthday on Saturday.
• Grandpa did great during some recent heart tests!
• Dad is feeling better after a stomach bug (and hopefully Mom, too).
• For our young friend Sam whom God protected in a big way on Sunday night.

"Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life." Robert Louis Stevenson

Are you awake in life??? If so, what are you thankful for today?

A day late but the results are in...

Well you are ALL winners but Jill and Kimberley won the Random Acts of Kindness drawing. My lovely assistant drew your names out of the teacup. I tried to photograph the moment but it wasn't worth posting it because you can't read the names. So you'll just have to trust the mother/daughter auditing skills of L & L.

Thanks for sharing your memories of the kindest thing that has happened to you! I will send something your way very soon!

Spread the kindness!

A little kindness...

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” Mother Teresa

I learned this is National Random Acts of Kindness Week. Did you know there was such a thing? I sure didn't...Or maybe I did at one time but it didn't make a permanent impression on me.

I can honestly say I feel like I receive acts of kindness more than I give them. I truly don't mean for it to be that way but sometimes that's just how it works out. I mean to bake muffins for my neighbors for no reason but I haven't. I mean to encourage the sick or the lonely, but I don't often get to it. I mean to...I mean to...I mean to. Know what, unfortunately, the thought DOESN'T count.

In honor of National Random Acts of Kindness Week, I am going to do something nice for two of my readers. Honestly, not sure what yet but something...

To get in on the kindness, you have to work quick!!! Just leave a comment telling me the kindest thing someone has ever done for you by midnight on Sunday, February 17th. On Monday morning I will have Miss Lindy Li-Xiao RANDOMLY choose the winners.

Please note, if you read but don't comment (known as lurking in blogworld) but want to get it on this, it is REALLY easy to leave a comment. You don't have to be a blogger... You don't have to sign up for anything...TRUST ME!

Looking forward to hearing about how you've been blessed in the past and encouraging you to be kind--always.

P.S. I promise I didn't plan this but no sooner did I get to the part about all the things I mean to do, I got a call from my friend and former co-worker, Ann, who wanted to stop by the house with her incredible frosted sugar cookies she knew I always enjoyed so much. See what I mean??? I get kindness more than I give it!!!

Thankful Thursday

"Love wasn't put in your heart to stay. Love isn't love until you give it away."

Michael W. Smith

Today I am thankful for each and every person in my life who has given me love. My life is better because of you.

Happy Valentine's Day 2008.

She's FINALLY 30!!!

Today is my dear, sweet, incredible, friend, Jaime's, 30th birthday. I met Jaime 12 years ago when she was a senior in high school. She was precious then and is precious now. I have had the privilege to watch her graduate high school, meet her husband, get married, graduate college, start her career, and become a mommy twice. She has matured and blossomed before my very eyes and is such a lovely woman of God.

I am A LOT older than Jaime and sometimes I envy her youth and all the exciting things she still has ahead of her. However, I am so honored that she doesn't look at me as her "old" friend. :o)

I am excited to wish her a very special day as she enters her 30s.

Happy Birthday, Jaime! I love you!

"Grow old along with me the best is yet to be." --Robert Browning

Looking upward, instead of all around...

Do you remember the tale of Henny Penny? She was the little hen who got hit on the head and pushed the panic button and thought the sky was falling. She went around telling everyone, "the sky is falling, the sky is falling."

There are some days where it does seem like that--literally and figuratively. If you've watched the news lately, things haven't been really good. The stock market is down. There have been so many terrible weather disasters. The real estate market is awful. Who knows when our troops will get to come home.

It is pretty easy to let the day to day things in life get us down for very real and valid reasons. I read a verse today and it made me think differently...

"My eyes are fixed on you, O sovereign Lord; in you I take refuge." Psalm 141:8

For today, I am trying to not look at the messes and despair around me but look up to God for refuge...