Thankfully Yours

Sunday January 30th, 2011

Im surprised that the time has come already for my monthly "things im most thankful for" post.  Time goes by so fast.  I was told that would happen....the older you get the faster time seems to go by.  Its true.

1.  Speaking about being older.  Thats something Im thankful for.  I sure loved each stage of my life.  But this one is awesome.  I enjoy everything more than I did when I was just kind of surviving...getting to the  next stage.  Now Im able to enjoy life... I dont know.... more thoroughly.  My kids have become my friends.  And, what awesome friends they are.  I love them completely...and that never changes with time.  This age thing is weird.  I know that I am the exact same person  that I have always been....but my filter...how I see  things has changed.  I see things in layers...in a depth that I didn't have before.  I look at a sunset and can sit and admire it.  Almost to the point of tears.  Until it is gone.  I love food better (not so good), nature, time with people that I love, hugs and physical embrace is sweeter, worship is more genuinely intense....so many things.  Ive figured out what is important in life.  Wow..reading this over it sounds like Im an 80 year old.  Well then...Id love to sit with an 80 year old...and hear their insight!  Thank-you God, for the good things that come with age.     

2.  Im thankful for my health.  I had a health scare this past fall.  What started out as a headache that wouldn't go away ended (after a long road) with a diagnoses of an auto immune disease called Sarcoid.  Im thankful because it has forced me to slow down and take better care of myself.  It was a little...no a lot.....intimidating to sit at the desk of a Neuro-Opthamologist/Surgeon.  My chair was pulled up next to his chair....at his desk.  That alone made me nervous. I instantly wondered if he did this with all of his patients when he had bad news to tell them.  My body scans were staring at us on three screens....like the big screen tvs at Best Buy.  That big!  My entire insides.  My brain.  Everything that has never been seen before was exposed in pictures.  It was so weird.  He had the most serious look on his face.  He rattled off abnormalities and normalites.  The whole thing made me uncomfortable...almost embarrassed.  Then I thought about the people who sat in the same seat, next to the same man...but with different pictures and different results.   I had passed those people in the waiting area and they were hooked up to machines and bags of fluid.  They wore hospital gowns that hung on their thin bodies.  But for now...at least this time...my diagnoses wasn't so bad.  Thank you God for the good I found out...and for demanding me to rest! 

3.  Im thankful for my husband, Matt and for bed bugs.  Yep, you read that right.  He owns a Pest Control business and we are finding ourselves on lots of trips across the state of NY lately. He battles the Bed Bud epidemic and I get to tag along.  Its pretty fun tagging!  Today we are in Albany in a coffee shop/book store.  I really, really love coffee, books, seeing new places and eating at new restaurants.  And getting to know my hubby without interruption.  Matt is an interesting human being....who makes me laugh.  People ask us all the time....how in the world did you guys get together?  We are so different.  He is a crazy man who loves adventure and walks to a different beat than the rest of the world.   At times he has been the kindest man on planet earth to me.  To our boys.  To our daughters in law.  Our grandchildren.  Our family members.  We love him for that.  And forgive him for the rest.   He  just looked up from his pile of books....."Interesting facts to read while you are on the toilet" book, "Inventing for Dummies" and "Koran vs Christianity".    He gave me the kindest smile and the sweetest wink.  Married for thirty years!  Thank you God, for faithfulness.               

4.  Im thankful for my Savior, The LORD Jesus Christ.  Without Him I wouldn't have stable, constant security through the aging process and the changes of life. 

Although my health may fail, I serve the Great Physician and at the end of this earthly life I will receive a new body that never gets sick!  Romans 8 reminds me that He has set me free from the law of sin and death!
  
And through my marriage I am able to live out a picture of faithfulness between Christ and the church.  What a privilege to walk through life with another human....flawed as we both are....and somehow glorify our Savior. Flawed people showing a picture of HIS STORY!  Awesome....to live my life as a part of a much,much bigger picture!!  Just plain awesome!!  

Im incredibly thankful!!

Meet Tracker...the insane shoe lover!!

We have a little, eight pound Jack Russell terrier named Tracker.  He is a work dog and has two serious jobs in his life.  One is to find bed bugs for Town and Country Pest Control.  He was rescued from a shelter and trained by a man in Florida.  The second job he has is one that he was never trained for and one that he has made up in his head.  It makes absolutely no sense, but he believes it is his job to guard my husbands shoes.  He will growl when anyone comes near them and if the growl isn't heeded he will attack viciously.  It doesn't matter how big or small the offender is.  It doesn't matter if it is the person, me, who feeds him.  It doesn't matter if he is disciplined severely.  He never waivers from his duty.  Being "The Guarder of the Shoes" is his purpose in this life.  He loves those shoes more than he loves his own life.
  
One afternoon I wanted my husband to chastise him.  He had offended me greatly and just about bit my entire foot off because I walked too close to the shoes.  Matt corrected him..i moved closer to the shoes...growl.  Matt corrected him...i moved closer...growl.  If Matt wasn't holding him I would have lost both of my feet and part of my leg.  This severe correction went on for a long time.   To no avail.  Finally my sweet, animal-loving daughter in law (Cheryl) who was watching on couldn't take it any longer.  She spoke up and said "I would just hide the shoes".  So we did.
  
I've thought a lot about Tracker and his love of Matts shoes.  Do I love anything like that?  So much that I would die for it?  I think we are suppose to love God like that.  That love is to be the sole influence as to why we do what we do each and every day. Deuteronomy tells us to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind."  I want to do that.  And, Tracker has given me a visual of loving something that much.  Thank you little, stupid Tracker.    I brought the shoes out of hiding.  I put them in his den area where he can see them constantly.  He sleeps near them and has a continual watch on those beloved shoes.  I praise him each time he growls and tell him what a good dog he is for guarding those shoes.  And every day I am reminded of my own lifes purpose and what it means to love something so much!  May not make sense to the world...but it makes perfect sense to me.