Today, I am Thankful

"Today I am thankful for..."

Yep...on that social media site that we all are glued to....that shall remain nameless....:)...We all have the wonderfully devoted "friends" who state what they are thankful for each day in November.  I'm lazy and forgetful, so I'm not one of them.  I remember once I started a "Picture a Day" with plans to do it the entire year.  Not sure I quite made it through January.  Ahhhhh..... the pressure.

In Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts, she makes a practice of noting the little and mundane things that she is thankful for. Got me to thinking....How much in my life do I take for granted?

I know I do it and I am ashamed. I see the greener grass, the shinier car, the fatter bank accounts, the tidier home, the thinner, the more chic, and it is so very easy to forget all my blessings.

Funny thing, I never (or rarely, one should never say never ;) ) take for granted the washer and dryer in my garage. Once, my less than a year old front loader....when front loaders first came out and I was the ENVY of all my mom friends....broke down in the heart of the rainiest football season on the planet.  My son played Future Panther Football then (the local peewee league)...and was a mudpit at best.  It took exactly 47 days to get the right part and get it fixed.  47 DAYS!  I was bouncing to laundromats once or twice a week. And laundromats are scary, people.   Now, when we do at least two loads of laundry a day and I am grateful each time I do a load that I can do it in my own home. I have not forgotten what a gift doing laundry is.

I once heard an analogy....I think it was from my hero and "heaven on earth" walking ANGEL, Jen Hatmaker, that God's love is like a pile of warm laundry which we can relax into. This morning as I was pulling the soft, warm clothes out of the dryer I thought of that analogy, of how grateful I am to be able to do laundry for my family, how God's love shines through that small task of clean clothes and how great it is to be able to do it.

Sometimes I take my family for granted. When the bickering gets out of control, when I trip over the HUGE shoes in the floor from the 4 size 10 feet that somehow I gave birth to, when all I want is a few minutes to think in peace...I forget that it is a miracle that brought them to me. God chose ME to mother and raise and nurture these two creatures....and it's so fun!

Today, though as I pulled my son's shirt from the dryer and thought of Jen's analogy, I remembered....

Today I am thankful for warm and cozy, clean and miraculous. Today I am thankful for reminders to be thankful and grateful to live life in the warmth of God's love.

In Him,
Terri