Better Late than Never: Giving Thanks in 2010

Hello Blogosphere!

So obviously I've been on a blogging hiatus.
It's very much intentional.

I've been re-evaluating my 'online presence' and trying to decide what is right for me and my family. I am still working through this and haven't made any concrete decisions on how much or little I am going to blog/tweet/post to facebook but I decided I wanted to pop online and write a much needed Thanksgiving post... who cares how late I am... it's never to soon or to late to give thanks.

Right?
Just agree with me here, even if you technically don't.

So...

To say this year has been turbulent for me is the understatement of the century. Simply because I have had such a turbulent year I feel it is more important than ever to shout my thankfulness from the rooftops... or at least publish into blogosphere public record. I am not taking the time to write this in my normal 'writing' fashion. Meaning I am not writing the rough draft by hand and editing as I type. Instead I'm just punching this out on my keyboard and posting it.

RAW
UN-edited
UN-censored

I feel so naughty.

Bad grammar will abound and I don't care. This post isn't about writing well, or making a lot of sense. This is about me looking long and hard at the tough things in my life, and learning to be thankful. Yes, you read that right... learning... it doesn't always come natural to be thankful and yet that is what we are called to be... in ALL things never-the-less!

So, in the year twenty-ten I have decided to be the most thankful for the following:

My husband's job. Phew, that is hard to admit. I hate my husband's job. The last time he was home was the week before Halloween. It's now December. You do the math. It sucks. BIG TIME! Funny though how God can take something you hate and detest and teach you alot through it anyway. So this year I find it not only possible but downright necessary to be thankful for my hubby's job and all that it has taught me.  Of course there are the obvious lessons like how much I truly madly deeply love my husband and how much I took his presence for granted. Then there is the slightly less obvious, like the fact that I was putting our relationship before my relationship with God.  Something that I am still learning to fix. (Am I the only slow learner?) Read it here right now because I may never admit it again... but I really am truly thankful for your dumb job Josh. ;0)

Loneliness. I am thankful for the season of loneliness that I am experiencing foremost because it has deepened my relationship with my Creator. It has helped bridge the gap between head knowledge and heart knowledge in many areas of scripture so I am thankful for the heart-wrenching pain of loneliness that helped me to move from simply knowing scripture to truly fully experiencing the power of scripture. I'm sure I still have much to learn but I have grown by leaps and bounds this year. Thank you Jehovah-Raah for bringing me to the point where I had no one to turn to but YOU.

Financial Insecurity. For it has taught me how frivolous 'things' are and has shown me how wasteful I have been in the past. Things in life fall into one of two categories. Wants and needs. It's amazing how unbalanced those two lists are. I never in all my life realized how short the need list really is. I am so thankful that I have had an opportunity to learn now, so that for the rest of my life I can grab hold of what is truly important in life. I can't think of a better way to learn how to use money wisely than by not having any to spend in the first place. Next time I have a couple bucks I now know how much I can do without, enabling any meager income to be put to better use than it ever would have been if we hadn't experienced the financial insecurity this past year has brought.

That's about it. Not exactly a super long list but those are the biggies for me this year. Of course there are about ten zillion other things I am thankful for, but these three have definitely been the hardest for me to deal with and in turn the most fruitful to be thankful for.

Your turn. What really yucky junk is in your life that you need to be thankful for? 1st Thessalonians 5:8 says to give thanks in ALL things... not just the good/pleasant/enjoyable things... there is a reason for it. Join me and give thanks!