Thankful for God's Faithful Love

I've taken a couple months off of blogging - I went through a stretch where I felt like I didn't have anything worth putting out in the world. Still feeling that way, but I'm going to write through it as an attempt to push back. It's November, which means  time for the annual thankful post, and this year I'm going to write about thankfulness for God's goodness and faithfulness through harder stretches of life.  

First, there's this verse about how God is building you up through difficulties:

James 1:2-4: This is the classic verse about how our character gets built up in hard times. It talks about being firm and unwavering in your faith when difficulties hit, and how the process of going through this is building us up. Sports is similar. In sports, you go through a part of the training cycle where you're pushing really hard - the cardio workouts are intense, the weight-lifting sessions are heavy. Your legs feel tired and your mind and spirit have to dig deep to keep going when workouts are insane while your body is fatigued. But the thing that keeps you going is knowing where this is all headed. At the time when this really matters - the race day, the championship competition -- your mind, body, and spirt will be built up and operating at maximum strength to compete at the highest level, all because of the difficult work in the weeks leading up to it.  

So it makes sense to work hard if it's within your ability and if there is something that you are working towards -- but where's the hope that we can do this, or that we have something we are working towards on the other end of the difficult season?

Reason for Hope #1: God's love. The Bible describes God's love hundreds of times - this is a particularly beautiful example. He delights in you, He sings over you. Can you imagine? A God who loves you like that, and who is also mighty as the verse describes, will not leave you hanging forever in the middle of a difficult situation. Nor will He leave you alone as you're going through it. 

Reasons for Hope #2: This verse reminds us that we can be steadfast in our faith because God is always steadfast in His kindness. Every morning there are new mercies, new reasons to hope, new examples of God's kindness and faithfulness. Starting with the sunrise, the provision of breakfast, and a new day of being alive. If we aren't seeing God's faithfulness in a particular situation, it means that the story is still being worked out - in a bigger, more surprising, more beautiful way than we are yet able to grasp. (It should be noted that the setting of Lamentations is arguably the most bleak and brutal in the entire Bible - we will not face a situation in life worse than what they faced - and even then, there are new mercies every morning.)

Reason for hope #3: what we are moving towards. Under that first verse, I talked about how intense athletic training prepares you for the championship game. What are we training for in the spiritual realm? An eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. It's a little mysterious what that means, but I think it means the love, joy, peace, goodness - all the good things, at unfathomable levels - of being in God's presence forever. And somehow, going through hard things while we're in this life, and clinging to God for dear life as we do, better prepares us for the experience that we're heading towards.

These are the verses that I've been looking to a lot lately, and I'm very grateful for this process and this hope. 

Day 49: Things You Like About Winter

Two of my favorite things about winter - Christmas and skiing - have been written about multiple times on the blog. But an additional thing I'm so grateful for about winter is the feeling of coziness. I love putting on warm socks and sweaters, of lighting candles to brighten up the early evenings, of snuggling up under a warm blanket and settling in to read a book or watch a snow. I love sitting by a crackling fire. I especially love when it's a snowy day - you might go outside for awhile, either for fun or for shoveling - and then that feeling of coming back into the warmth of the house.

This concludes my thankfulness series for 2025. Thanks for following along! It's always a pleasure for me to go through this exercise and I'm grateful to those of you who humor me putting this all up on a blog :).

Day 48: Your Job

I'm grateful that my job involves regular court hearings. Court is fun because it's unpredictable and you have to be sharp and it's the work equivalent of competition for athletes. It's a good day if important decisions go in favor of your client. (Though this is very much determined by the facts more than the lawyers' advocacy.) It's disappointing when things don't go your client's way. Through both experiences, you learn how to be a better advocate. 

Day 47: Opportunities You've Been Given

I am grateful for the gift, through the homeschool lifestyle, of extra time with my kids. I'm grateful for all the extra meals, extra shopping trips, and extra adventures that we've been able to do together during these homeschool years. I'm grateful especially for slow mornings together. As the years roll by and I'm increasingly aware that kids dont keep, Im grateful for all the extra moments afforded ny these years of kids schooling at home.

Day 46: Technology

 

I am grateful that we are heading towards the technology of self driving cars. I'm grateful for what this will mean for the population of people who can't drive and who live in towns like Reno, Nevada and Lincoln, Nebraska - towns that are expansive but don't have great public transportation. I'm grateful for how this can potentially help the elderly and disabled be more independent and able to do things they want and need to do. I'm grateful that, as this technology gets better, it could potentially make things like the transportation of goods and getting around in inclement weather much safer. I'm grateful that on long road trips, I might soon have the ability to read my book for awhile even if I am the driver. In this time of rapid technological advancement, where so much is unknown and some of it feels kind of scary, I'm grateful for how much potential and hope is also there for improving people's lives.

(This picture is not a self driving car, just seemed like a good opportunity to throw in a picture of a Tesla truck.)

Day 45: What You Do For Fun

I am grateful for the karaoke machine that we have in the corner of our dining room. Ivy got it as a Christmas gift last year, and she enjoys it, but honestly I might enjoy it more.

Most of the things I do for fun should really have finger quotes around the word - I like to run and read in my free time, and while they both provide huge benefit, they are not really fun in the traditional sense of the word.

But i also *love* singing karaoke with the kids, and that is 100% fun in the traditional sense of the word. Singing is free and passionate and all-consuming. The variety of songs you can do, heck the variety of songs available even in the Taylor Swift catalogue alone, can span the range of human emotions. 

Home karaoke is my favorite fun activity right now and I'm super grateful for it. 

Day 44: Your Favorite Holiday

My favorite holiday is Christmas, which has been well documented on this blog, but today I want to give a shout-out to all the summer holidays that give us several 4-day work weeks through the summer. I want to note, these holidays of course all have a much deeper meaning than the way I'm writing about them here and I don't intend any disrespect towards the real things they celebrate. But as someone who is relatively recently back in the Monday to Friday work force, today I want to show some gratitude for what these breaks give to workers.

Memorial Day kicks things off, Juneteenth and 4th of July offer extra holidays in the middle of summer, and Labor Day provides one last long weekend before we head into the hustle bustle of fall. For workers, having three days off instead of two means you have more opportunity to get out of town, get to the lake, throw a barbeque, or do other fun summer events without having to figure out how to squeeze this around the demands of the work schedule and the home chores that are waiting on the weekend. It gives more time to spend with family, to enjoy a little bit of the kick back and relax that you don't understand how good you have it as a kid on school break, and to get to your body of water of choice and cool off.

Here's to you, summer holidays!