ThankFULL - Part 3

Today I will add to my ThankFULL list something near and dear to most of us women.

Friendships.

God has blessed me to an overflow with women surrounding me who love Him and love me too. Tears fill my eyes as I type this because I feel so unworthy of the gift these people give me by just simply letting me be me and simply loving me anyway.

This past Saturday, I was at Beulah Baptist Church for their annual Women's Thanksgiving and Christmas Celebration as one of their speakers. What a sweet group of women! Their hearts were so welcoming and inviting and each of them made sure you felt as if you belonged there before you left. It was a fun day. We ate, we played games. We laughed and we cried and it was good.

But- one of the biggest blessings for me on Saturday was this - Keep in mind, I was going to speak to a group of women I did not know in a place I had never been. My friend, Mitzi, rode along with me for "moral support" (she's one of my biggest cheerleaders!) and I was so thankful that she took time out of her Saturday to go with me, I know how valuable Saturdays are to a working mom.  To our surprise, when I pulled into the parking lot of the church, we spotted a familiar vehicle and had to take a second glance. It was my friend Brittany's car. She came along to support me too. She surprised me, blessed me, and encouraged me with her presence.

My heart smiled.

You see, I experienced the gift in a close godly friend several years ago, but our lives began to change, and distance has since separated us. After she moved away, I was left with a hole for a long time. I prayed, and prayed often, for God to send me another godly friend, but for a long while, that prayer went unanswered. If you have ever experienced a friendship where you are able to pray together holding nothing back, able to share scripture, and a relationship that has the openness to ask the hard questions, you know what I am talking about. It is a relationship that is irreplaceable. I longed to have it again and after a few years God answered that prayer in my friend, Brittany.

And in my friend, Leslie.

And He is cultivating wonderful things in my friendships with several other wonderful women right now, and I thank every one of you for your influence in my life. It means more to me than you know.

God just keeps answering that prayer, and I am reaping the benefits.

If you don't have a true friend that will share the Word with you, pray with and for you, and be truly honest with you, oh, dear sister, you are missing out! You need one or two, or twelve! It grows me in ways that I cannot grow on my own. I challenge you to pray that prayer for a godly friend and be open to what He does with it. Be willing to be that kind of friend to somebody.

God, my Best Friend, I am so thankful for the abundance of friendships that you have given me and most thankful for your friendship. I pray that you whisper into the hearts of my friends today a special word of encouragement. A Divine brush with your shoulder. I pray that this Thanksgiving season will mark a new season in their relationship with You. Take them to new places and assure them of how much they are loved, not only loved by You, but also loved by me. Show me ways to be the same kind of friend to each of them that they have been to me.

What is on your ThankFULL list for today?  Do you have a friend you are thankful for that you would like to comment about?  I'm sure she would be honored if you did.  You could email her a link to this post and let her read for herself what she means to you.




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ThankFULL - Day 2

The thing I am thankful for today is simply one word -

Love.

In that one word, so much is wrapped up. Love makes so much possible. If it weren't for love, I would not have experienced life in the same way.  

Because they loved me, my parents raised me, discplined me, taught me, shaped me. 

They loved me enough to introduce me to my Jesus. 

Without love, I wouldn't completely experience the joy of being a mother.

My relationship with my husband would be meaningless.

My siblings and my friends wouldn't stick by me through my shortcomings if it weren't for love. 

Because of love, I can forgive and be forgiven.

Love tells us the hard things we sometimes don't want to hear.

Love comes along side us and supports us when our knees are weak.

For the sake of love, Jesus left the splendor of Heaven, to be mocked, spit upon, beaten, battered, and crucified for me.  Me.  One that did not yet know how to love Him back.

I am thankful for love because God is love. 1 John 4

And I am thankful that He is.

His love is perfect and perfect love casts out fear.  1 John 4:18

And to think, except for His perfect love for me, what I experience in my life that I consider to be love, as wonderful as they are, are not perfect love.  Can you imagine experiencing perfect love as He loves?  I think my heart would explode. 

I am thankful that He gives me glimpses of Himself and love in my everyday life.  Without His love, I fear where my life would be.  Because of His love, Jesus has not yet returned, giving many one more day to reach out and let Love touch their hearts.


I thank you God, my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer for your perfect love for us.  I thank You for the ways You allow me to experience small portions of the whole that You have instore for us.  Without your love, I could not make it.  I could not live, I could not breathe. Thank you God, there are no other words that I can say to express it, other than thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, I am eager to hear from each of you - What's on your thankful list today?



Royal Princess Daughter Of The King

ThankFULL

It’s only a week away – Thanksgiving, that is. I never appreciated Thanksgiving the way I should have until I was an adult, and more so after I became a mother. The air chills a bit, fall aromas fill the air, and everyone is close. Not only is Thanksgiving a holiday to reflect upon thankfulness to God, but it is accompanied by a few days off of work, days that I spend enjoying my family.

The rush stops for few days for us, and we simply spend time together.

And “my cup runneth over” as Psalms 23:5 says.

It does. It runneth over.

I spend all year asking God in different ways to “fill my cup” and on Thanksgiving Day, and the few days that follow, I realize that my cup runneth over. I realize He has been faithful and supplied all that I need and more, He has filled me to overflowing. I get excited as Thanksgiving approaches each year because my cup gets so FULL.

My friend Kristie, who I met this past summer at She Speaks, is the author of a new blog entitled “Strengthening Me”, and her post for this week was entitled “A Thankful Heart”. To prepare her heart for Thanksgiving, she decided to write down something every day between now and Thanksgiving that she is thankful for and challenged her readers to do the same. She also encouraged them to share that list at their Thanksgiving meal. I think that is a wonderful idea and I challenge you all to do the same.

Lysa TerKeurst, in her book Becoming More Than A Good Bible Study Girl, says this about a thankful heart:

“Remember, thankfulness breeds thankfulness. The more we practice it, the more we’ll live thanksgiving out loud.”

So let’s practice Thanksgiving between now and next Thursday so that we can live thanksgiving out loud.

Thanksgiving to God = Praising God, Praising God = God’s Presence. He inhabits the praises of His people, so thank Him, which will lead you to praising Him, which will lead to His presence, which leads to a cup that runneth over.

Let’s start our lists right now, tell us something you are thankful for today and everyday from now until Thanksgiving. There are cups out there longing to run over.

And when you get a chance, check out Kristie’s blog, Strengthening Me at http://strengtheningme.blogspot.com/ . I know you’ll enjoy it.

Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides, I thank you today for giving me a cup that can overflow with your love and provision. I pray for my readers today, some of whom are having a difficult time, and ask you to whisper something to their hearts as a reminder of something they are thankful to You for. I pray for all of us to have hearts prepared for Thanksgiving Day, but further I pray that we remember in those moments that it is easy to grumble, that thankfulness breeds thankfulness. When we practice thankfulness, we live it out for others to see, and that reflects your heart.




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