Thankfulness

Sure... Everyone is blogging about thankfulness right now. I debated just keeping my "Thankful Thursday" post on Thursday where it belongs but then... why are we only thankful once? Why do we spend a day going around the table and saying what we're thankful for (often before we're aloud to eat) - and then forget all about those blessings the next day?

I have so much to be thankful for - every day... It's been a few crazy days as my husband's come down with some sort of crazy cold/flu/allergy/("I'm a man and I get sicker than a dog when I'm sick") illness... My mother has been back and forth from her sisters house singing songs and giving hugs and knowing that any day now, her sweet sister will meet the Lord face to face and will enter his gates with Thanksgiving... We don't have any kids of our own - but through ministry we "adopt" several students into our family, I've spent countless hours talking with them and working through problems going on in their lives and have felt the sickness and fear of a parent when they've chosen to turn and run from God - but recently some of these "prodigal sons" have come home and are beginning to understand the grace and peace and confidence that comes from a life walked with the Lord.

Sometimes there are tears of sorrow and sometimes there are tears of JOY.

And I'm thankful.

After-all, we would not know the JOY of life if we did not also experience the pain.