Day 6: Someone You're Grateful For

 

A person I'm grateful for is my sister-in-law, Naomi.  When you date your spouse, you don't necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about all the people that are going to come along with that choice when you get married.  Which is funny, because over the course of a lifetime, you spend a lot of time with this extended family.  I have been really, really blessed across the board with my fantastic in-laws, but have never done a focused post on Naomi.  We joined the Ching family at nearly the same time, marrying the Ching brothers just 2 weeks apart in the spring of 2006, and barely knowing each other as we lived on opposite sides of the country.  

Once I relocated to Reno, I learned that I had hit the sister-in-law jackpot.  Naomi is warm and friendly, interesting and interested, loyal, fun, so smart, and just an overall terrific human being.  We share a love of mountains and reading, we share a common faith, we had kids around the same time, and she's been a super helpful mentor for me in the world of homeschooling.  She's incredibly organized and has a spreadsheet for all occasions, which we like to tease her about, but actually makes everything run much more smoothly.  And for the last four years, she's been the pastor's wife at a church plant that we attend together, and has worked so hard to keep things going behind the scenes.  I'm so grateful for Naomi.  

Day 5: A TV Show / Movie

 

A movie I'm grateful for is The Princess Bride.  The kids are finally old enough, as a group, that we can start watching some of the movies that were my favorites as a kid.  Some of them hold up better than others.  This one is a great blend of comedy, adventure, fairy tale, and lots of quotable lines.  ("Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken" is another banger in this same category.)  This gratitude series seems to be taking on a nostalgic theme - we'll see if it continues :).  I'm grateful for movies that bring back good memories for me, and that I can enjoy all over again with my family.  

Day 4: A Type of Food

 

Today, I'm grateful for luxurious breakfast foods.  The kind that someone took the time to cook up hot, and that usually people sit around a table together and eat.  The kind that usually means weekends, holidays, special occasions, or camping.  (At least for us - weekdays are throw together something easy, like toast or oatmeal.)  The kind that would usually be called dessert, if you weren't eating it before 10 am.  

My absolute number one pick for luxurious breakfast would be banana chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs with spinach and goat cheese mixed in.  But I'm also grateful for anything else in this delicious category.  

Day 3: An Album

 

An album I'm grateful for is "Jagged Little Pill" by Alanis Morissette.  This album came out in 1995 and stayed influential through the late 90s - right when I was in high school.

This album is packed with emotion - anger, wistfulness, love, sadness, a whole gamut.  And like with all the best music, you can really feel these emotions through her words and melodies.  It helped me work out the big feelings that come with the teenage years, and to see that music is a great place to turn when you want to work through the ups and downs of emotion.  

Another thing I love about this album is that it's quality songs from start to finish - a rarity always, but more so now than ever in the age of streaming music.  It was so great to put on a CD and listen to and enjoy the whole thing from start to finish.  

A Place

Today's prompt is:  think about a place you're grateful for.  I'm grateful for trails.  I love the feeling of discovery around every bend.  I love getting to see crazy rocks formations coming out of the top of a mountain and thinking about what geological event happened to make that formation.  I love walking through a desert landscape and seeing a flower appear to break up the brown and sagebrush.  I love waterfalls, big and small.  I love the sounds of birds, wind rustling through trees, babbling brooks.  I love the combination of nature, sunshine, and movement.  I love the type of easy conversation that comes when you hike as a group.  I love the silence of hiking alone.  I love running a trail that you've done a hundred times before and knowing the trees and canyons along the way like friends.  I love nature trails that tell you a new fact every quarter mile or so.  Cheers to trails!

Day 1: A Happy Memory

I'm starting up another gratitude challenge, and this year I'm going to extend the time parameters from Memorial Day to Labor Day, taking on a couple each week.  As always, I would love it if anyone wants to participate along with me!  I will put the full list at the bottom of this post.

The first day is:  "What is a happy memory you're grateful for?"  This is an easy one.  Since tomorrow is our 18th wedding anniversary, I'm grateful for the memory of our wedding weekend.  Kenny and I got married on May 27, 2006 at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, NE.  Kenny's family and friends are from Reno, and at the time we were going to school in North Carolina, so we had people traveling in from all over the country to join the celebration.  At age 25, I only had the smallest idea of what a special, unusual thing it is to have so many of your loved ones gathered in one place, and what an honor it is that people take the time and trouble to come witness your special event.  I also had only the smallest idea of what a big thing it is that someone promises to be your partner, through better or worse, for the rest of their life.  But I did have lots of love for the funny, smart, handsome, faithful man that I was going to get to call husband.

I was never one to dream about the details of my wedding - thinking about that kind of thing stresses me out.  I was in the middle of my 2nd year of law school and honestly found wedding planning exponentially more stressful than my law school classes.  Fortunately, my mom and sister were super helpful in the planning process.  I wore the same wedding dress my sister wore the year before, used many of her same vendors, and took as much of their advice as I could.  Thanks largely to them, the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception were just what I hoped they would be.  Lots of laughs, food, good conversation, hugs, and dancing with our favorite people.  A wonderful way to launch into married life.

And I'm grateful to Kenny for putting up with me for all this time, and to God for His provision in our marriage.  Cheers to 18 years!

Strong and Courageous - How?

This month, my memory verse group (led by my friend Kim, the inspiration for countless blog posts) has been thinking about the verse Joshua 1:9, which says, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."  I absolutely love this verse, and I thought of it often when Joshua was going through all the surgeries and medical stuff.  And this month, it's been an encouragement in a whole new way.  

Whenever I'm going through a transitional time in my life, like I am right now (see previous two posts), there are always moments of fear and discouragement.  Always.  And I don't think I'm alone in this.  It's hard to move out of your comfort zone; it's hard to be the beginner and have to learn new systems and ask questions and look foolish; it's hard to be on the learning curve.  All of us go through these times in life, whether it's a new job, a new city, or a new life stage.  This verse, and some others that relate, are perfect for these transitional times.  

The verse tells us to be strong and courageous rather than frightened and dismayed, but how are we supposed to get this strength and courage?

• The first answer is right in the verse - "the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  I don't have to look to my own strength to fight fear - I can look to the one who travels with me wherever I go, who faces every discouragement by my side - and who is infinitely more powerful than any of those things.
• Here is a related verse that takes the concept even farther:  "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:14)  This verse comes from the story where the Israelites have just escaped Egyptian slavery, and the Egyptians are chasing them down, and they run into a dead end at the Red Sea -- but then God parts the Red Sea, lets the Israelites through, and stops the Egyptians in decisive fashion.  Neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians could've possibly imagined this is how the story was going to go.  It's a good reminder that I don't need to know all the details of how my life story is going to play out, and in fact I'm going to be a lot better off if I trust and be still and enjoy the ride.
•   If I was going to get another tattoo, it would say "Be Still" as a reminder of this verse.  (Either that or matching Celtic tattoos with my sister.)  (But not going to get tattooed.)
• Another verse that acknowledges how heavy the burdens of fear and discouragement can be, and how God takes those things on for us:  "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest."  (Matthew 11:28)  God never promises us an easy life.  He understands that the burdens life throws at us are heavy.  But He does offer rest in the midst of life's challenges.
• Finally, a reminder that this piece of the story we're living in is just a tiny sliver of the bigger story:  "Fear not; I am the first and the last." (Revelation 1:17).  God has been there since the beginning, and He will be there in the end.  He is working all the events of history, including all the pieces of our individual lives, towards a larger redemptive story.  Remembering the bigger story helps us relativize any fear or discouragement we're feeling right now as temporal, momentary, passing. 

These are the thoughts I'm having this month on how to be strong and courageous.  As always, would love to hear any further thoughts!