TOP 10 THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR

Yeah, I am "borrowing" the Top 10 from a popular late night show on Television, but I have to say this week it is worth it. I hope you enjoy your holiday and for those of you that take advantage of the Black Friday deals, be safe and have fun! 

# TEN

I am thankful for another book review of The Purpose of Chosen. It is nice when other people like your work. The launch is going slowly, but I wrote a book! How can I not be grateful for that? 

# NINE

I am thankful for tow truck drivers who do not try and run me over. This was in fact, in question yesterday and that whole story will be for another post for another day. Suffice to say that it was traumatic and I am still recovering emotionally....lol. 

#EIGHT

I am thankful for budgets. I can hear some of you groaning right now, but for the majority of my married life we did not live with one and we were miserable with money and over money way more than we should have been. Now when my husband and I work out a budget for the next two months together I have peace about knowing what I cannot plan, spend, and or do because it really tells me what I CAN plan, spend and do. The freedom of this simple act and the discipline to follow it is one of the most freeing experiences of my life and it has happened this year. This Christmas season will not be about stress, but about "bless"ing others. Thank you Lord! 

#SEVEN

I am thankful for my home. We are renters. In this economy that may seem crazy, but owning a home (in this tax climate in the US) may be more crazy for some than renting. Regardless of how you may feel about renting versus owning, this will be our second Thanksgiving here and our third Christmas and I am loving how at home we truly feel here. The house is in a great neighborhood on a cul-de-sac, and minutes from my kid's school. The rent is extremely cheap as well, so Thank YOU Lord for your favor! 

#SIX

I am thankful for my blog. This year I started this blog. It began in January and it was something I did to obey God. Less than 30% of bloggers actually stick to blogging more than three months, so I feel honored and a little proud (the good satisfied-with-my-work-ethic kind of pride) of myself. Through this blog I have met incredible people, gained friends from every walk of life imaginable and written a book like I always dreamed of doing. By obeying God in a "little" thing back in January, I have had a year of blessings beyond my wildest imaginations. 

#FIVE

I am thankful for you. You are in fact one of my top five things! I cannot type another word without thanking my Father for you. You have read my blog, encouraged me, challenged me, prayed for me, and laughed and cried with me. You are a benefit of my obedience to God. The impact you have had on me and the other readers of this blog can only be fully measured when we receive our great reward. Thank you for being a part of my life and my ministry. 

#FOUR

I am thankful for my church. Now, no church is perfect. If it was, it would be spoiled the minute we showed up, right? But my church family is kind, welcoming, open and giving. It is an honor to attend there, worship there, laugh there, volunteer there and grow there. My pastor is a great communicator with a huge heart for people, a great wife and kids and a decent sense of humor. The staff is down to earth and I never feel out of place. It has become HOME too and I am so glad my Father has planted us there. 

#THREE

I am thankful for my kids. Sarah (16) and Connie-Lyn (14) are the biggest challenge/blessing that I have ever received. Talk about a mixed bag! One minute I want to pull their hair out and the next I am laughing, loving, and learning with them what it means to be a parent, friend, teacher, mentor, instructor, policeman, authoritarian, and tons of other things that make my head want to explode! No one save the Holy Ghost can strip me so bare as my children. They expose me for the lack luster parent I am on a regular basis and make me hit my knees in prayer more than any other single issue in my life. Because of them I have grown as a person and my life has been so richly blessed. They fill my heart with love and gratitude in equal measure. 

#TWO

I am thankful for my husband Randy Bickham! When I met the man I have spent the last 18 and 1/2 years with, I thought he was a bit dorky. Truth be told, he was. But he is the most loyal, forgiving, gracious and giving man I know. My exact opposite in so many ways he balances me. God gave me a miracle when He brought me Randy. Someone who loves me,  leads me, challenges me, and corrects me, my husband is a wonderful friend, lover, provider and father. My life would be unimaginable without him, and I thank Daddy-God for the perfect fit of a mate for me. 

AND THE NUMBER 1 TOP TEN THINGS I AM THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR IS...........................

My Father. God is so good. His mercy is new every morning. His love never fails. He provides food to eat, shelter to sleep, seed to sow, and increase to grow. I am thankful for His love, His kindness, His faithfulness and His grace. I have messed up so many times and in so many ways and my Lord still loves, still forgives and still sings over me. Without God, nothing is possible, but with Him all things are possible. He is amazing. 

I could go on and on. I could fill volumes of books extolling His goodness. Maybe another day.... 

Enjoy your holiday, and be blessed as you are a blessing. Count it all joy and claim your Victory in Christ today! 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Join the Conversation: 

What are you thankful for?  

No More Lies Part 9: "What do you say?"

Lie #9:  I am grateful...enough

When my kids were small I would always ask them this question after they received a gift: "Now, what do you say?" 

The answer of course was "Thank you." 

We expect gratitude when we give gifts, but are we very grateful as a people? 

'Tis the Season....

This season is all about being grateful. Yet, when I think about it, I feel I fall short. 

I have so much to be grateful for yet I find myself complaining about the stupidest things. 

The internet is slow....I complain. 

I have a book get published, and sales are slow...I complain. 

My kids have attitudes about cleaning their rooms...I complain. My husband forgot to take the trash out....I complain. 

Instead I should be grateful that I have internet...it is the way I minister and talk with you. I should be grateful I have a published work, and let God give the increase....

My kids and husband are definitely something to be grateful for and I should show them and God that on a regular basis. 

I fall short...so short.

Gratitude is Paramount to Our Relationship With God

First God is our Source. Psalms says " For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my trust from my youth and the source of my confidence." 

In God we find our supply. "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 

If we are not grateful we displace God in our lives. If all we do is ask ask ask and never thank thank thank then we make God equal to Walmart or Santa Clause. 

He gives to us because he loves us. (John 3:16) 

This is why the word says "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Psalms 100:4

When the people of Israel were not grateful God called them "stiff-necked". Lord, please forgive me if I have been stiff-necked. 

When Paul began the closing of his letter to the church in the book of Colossians he says this: 

"Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." Colossians 3:16

My Prayer

Father let me always have a song of gratitude in my heart. Forgive me for believing the lie that I am grateful enough. Soften my heart and may thanksgiving always be on my lips. Let this scripture be my life...

"That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works." Psalms 26:7

I thank you for your faithfulness to me and your love and mercy. Thank you for everything that you have so richly bestowed on me and mine and help me Lord to never forget your goodness. 

Join the Conversation: 

What are you grateful for? Leave your comment below. 

 

What it is All About...

My Favorite Tradition

Later today, after church is done, my church family will do one of the things churches do best, we will come together in the evening and as a body, we will break bread together. 

Not as communion, or Eucharist, but as a Thanksgiving meal shared with the people we have prayed with, laughed with, studied with and served with all this last year. 

While we chow down it won't be about the feast, though that in and of itself is amazing and worthy of some attention. No, it will be about the talk across the table. It will be about the 15 third through fifth grade girls who I teach on Sunday nights sitting around me, giggling and basking in the special moment as they eat pie and cookies.  

It will be about the woman who has battled cancer all year, who battles still, sharing her joy and sweet presence with the rest of us who love her and pray for her. About the woman who lost her husband suddenly and found herself alone just a few short months ago. It is about sharing a meal with a family who is about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of a lifetime as they soon leave to plant a new church of their own. 

It will be about the kid who just got saved, and loves my daughter in that sweet and peculiar way first loves do - sitting with us for the first time at a holiday meal. 

It is about saying thank you to the people who have tolerated my loud laugh and quirky sense of humor. To the women who have laughed until they cried because I got the giggles. To the women who have opened their hearts and lives to me and my family. 

It is about celebrating and saying thank you to one of the finest pastors I have had the privilege of sitting under. It is a time of thanks giving. 

You may be thinking, Thanksgiving is a few weeks away, or I live in another country and do not celebrate thanksgiving as a holiday. Both of these may be true, but it does not change the fact that we can take a moment, a meal, a day and be thankful. 

We can deliberately express to our loved ones, the ones kin by birth and those kin by the blood of the Lamb, our gratitude. In the presence of our brothers and sisters, we can share our hearts as we share a meal. 

Most of all, it is a time to thank our Maker, who is matchless in His faithfulness and generous beyond anything we have ever known. 

It is about honoring those who have done all they could to secure all we have. It is about an attitude of gratitude. 

Join the Conversation

What have you got to be thankful for? 

An Attitude of Gratitude

photo Credit: Creative Commons with limited editing done by Dayna Bickham

Thankfully 

This is how I want to live my life: thankfully. In active gratitude. I told you yesterday that entitlement is dangerous. I believe it is and this is why: because entitlement forgets grace. 

Grace is God's love at work in our lives. When we forget this grace, when we ignore God's hand in our day-to-day lives, we run the risk of living with an attitude of entitlement rather than an attitude of gratitude. We take God for granted and forget there is no reason except His love for His favor in our lives. 

So as you read this are you nodding your head in agreement? 

Good. 

Now here is the challenge: 

Examine yourself. 

Where can you show more gratitude and less attitude? Toward your husband? Toward your Mother-in-law? What about your boss, who probably isn't saved so they don't "get it". 

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say there is at least one area you could use more gratitude in. Do you know why? Because, we all fall short somewhere. 

I am preaching to the choir, believe me. 

So this is what I want you to do, and I am going to do the same and share my results with you. Today we need to find three things we are thankful for. Small, medium or large, these things are something you are willing to share and give a brief explanation why you are grateful for them. 

I will go first. 

My List

1. I am grateful for my kids. 

    As much as I complain about parenting, my kids are the greatest gift (outside of salvation) that God has

    ever given me. They bring me more joy than heartache and that is what I need to remember when things

    get tough. 

2. I am grateful for early mornings. 

    This is when I get time to read and pray. I get ideas for this blog, I write, I even just sit back and listen to 

    praise and worship music. These quiet times are rare and I have to discipline myself to get up, but they are

    worth the effort, every time. 

3. I am grateful for you. 

    I write because I am called to, but I am glad I have you to share this blog with. You pray with me, laugh

   with me, cry with me, and cringe with me. You make the job of writing more than a chore, you make it an

   adventure! In you I see God's favor and increase. You are like His little kisses to me. Thank you for 

   showing up everyday and thank you for sticking it out with me through all my hiccups and growing pains as 

   as a blogger. 

 

Join the Conversation: 

Now it is your turn. What are you grateful for and why? 

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Easter's Best

It is Easter and clothes are flying off the racks. 

Countless people are shining shoes they wear only on special occasions, and little boys are being tortured with ties, hats, and Oxford sweaters in 85 degree weather. 

Girls are giggling over their Easter baskets. Moms are fretting over the Sunday ham that might begin to burn if the preacher goes on too long. Dads are wondering why on a perfect spring day they got up so early and it wasn’t for a round of golf?

Somehow we have lost what this season is. 

This is our true Thanksgiving. 

A time when we remember what Jesus did. A time to remember He chose to lay down His life. 

He laid it down in the Garden when He prayed for God to take the cup from Him. When Jesus said “Nevertheless”, what He meant was I will die for ________. (Your name goes here) 

He laid it down again when instead of calling angles to rescue Him from the cross, He took the punishment anyway. He laid down His life when He said “It is Finished”. 

Thank God He did not stop there. 

He laid down His Life, but He had the power to take it up again. Rising from the dead, the redemption of Man was complete. He made a way for man to die a spiritual death once and become alive in Him forever. 

This man was fully man, or the sacrifice He made would have been in vain, AND He was fully God. God’s one and only Son: the spotless lamb. 

This weekend does give us a chance to make new family memories, and to watch and delight in our children. 

Yet, if we do not focus on what Christ did, what is the point? 

Take a moment with your family, away from the church, and talk about the moment when you realized it should have been you on that cross. 

Take communion together. Pray with one another.

Share with your loved ones the message of the gospel and see the power of the Passion Story change their hearts and lives. 

Live Easter like you really believe what you say you believe.

The clothes are nice. The dinner is great. The reason for this weekend is Jesus and His ultimate sacrifice for you and I. He came to fulfill the goal of His father: the redemption of man. 

Do not lose sight of that. God gave His best- now give your's.