Gratituesday - Thanksgiving post

As I have gone through the month of November I have found myself being even more mindful of all that I have to be grateful for. Today it seemed that all sorts of random, yet important things came to mind as I thought through my gratitude. Here's a completely random and completely incomplete list.

I am so grateful for:

God Who gives me new mercies every day
Opportunities for learning and growth
my amazing husband who still makes my heart melt with just a look
Time to spend with J before she leaves for college
3 yr olds' statements like "Batman's helper is 'tiffer Robin (Christopher Robin)"
my 2 yr old saying "God bless you" five times after each cough
"tuggling" with my boys first thing in the morning
YouTube
Dave Ramsey's FPU
Gorgeous FL November weather
a nephew celebrating his first birthday
good friends and great laughs
Hot tea and honey, robitussin, advil cold and sinus
my health (in spite of the above list)
my family's health
naps
monkey bread traditions
my upcoming visit with mom
smoked turkey and sweet potato casserole
a couple of good friends who taught me the value of gratitude this year
amazing in-laws
that I feel no compulsion to shop tomorrow
Bible stories at bedtime

There were so many more things that flashed through my thoughts of gratitude today.

How about you? For what are you giving thanks today?

[image by Lawrence OP]

Getting the word out

At my church this weekend we are rolling out our invitation tools for our Christmas production this year, Me & My Drum.

Take a look at the video we've created for sharing and let me know what you think:



I'm really excited about our program this year! We are again finding a fun and creative way to tell the story of God's love for us demonstrated by sending us His Son.

We have an awesome cast!
The service and script were created by an amazing team that was so much fun to work with!
Some awesome guys have already been putting in lots of hours creating very cool props we need.
And there will be a high cool factor to the program.

Let's just say that if you like the percussion styles of Blue Man Group, you will like Me & My Drum.

By the way, you can already go to the Cypress Meadows web site and reserve your tickets.

We have learned over the years that the very best way for people to hear about our program is through personal invitation.

My hope is that if you like what you see here you'll forward the video and link for ordering tickets to people you know and let them know about the program as well.

If you are able to join us for the production, I hope you'll track me down afterward and let me know your thoughts.

Gratituesday - The Journey

As we have begun November I am so thrilled to see a resurgence of gratitude all over social media! This week as I have been pondering the things for which I am grateful one thought continues to rise to the surface. I am so grateful for the journey.

Like most of us, I spent years waiting to "arrive", certain that the next event or relationship would give me the contentment I was looking for. I turned back at one point to find I had missed out on so much. That was when I began to see the value in my journey.

There are somethings that I've noticed... first, I am and will likely continue to be a goal driven person so I will often battle the need to "arrive."

Second, there are many places in my journey that the path took turns I would never have chosen for myself. But I would also not trade them for anything. Those turns are places where God was able to teach me things I probably wouldn't have learned otherwise.

Finally, I am finding that the richness in life lies in appreciating each step while I am there. And while many people ahead of me in their journey told me this "secret of life" before, this is one of those that you learn on your own in your own time.

My prayer is that I can take each next step in confidence in my Guide trusting that the turns I'm afraid of He will walk with me through and that I will continue to see the beauty and grace along each step of the path. And that is my prayer for you as well.

What are you grateful for today?

[image by kazatzka]

Amazing statements

You’ve always given me breathing room,
a place to get away from it all,

A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
an open invitation as your guest.

You’ve always taken me seriously, God,
made me welcome among those who know and love you.

Psalm 61:3-5 MSG

How incredible to be able to make these statements to the God of the Universe! How grace-filled! How humbling. And how true.

Gratituesday

In my world where everything is maximized, evaluated and perfection is too often attempted, I am extremely grateful for hobbies.

My hobbies are my freedom to create for the sake of creating, to try something without the pressure of needing to perfect it.

I'm all over the place with my hobbies. I love photography, home decor, bicycling, scrapbooking, cake decorating and even golf.

Actually, I took up golf awhile ago simply because of how dreadfully bad at it I am. It was thrilling just to whack away at the ball and laugh.

What a gift it is to be able to do something just for the sake of doing it.

So,what have you done lately just to do it? I'm thinking I need to dig my clubs back out and head to the driving range.

Gratituesday

I am one of the very few people I know who can say that I do for a living what I love to do.

I get to spend the working percentage of my week using my gifts and strengths to create services and communication pieces that try to communicate to others the incredible love that God has for them.

The tools of my trade are Planning Center, CCLI, my mac, YouVersion, YouTube, lots of things Adobe, a flip chart, Blogger, Excel (gotta track your budget in an arts department... at least that's what my Exec. Pastor keeps trying to tell me) and Entourage (can't think without it.)

I am constantly faced with new challenges (for the past month I've been trying to learn web maintenance using Joomla - not sure yet where that falls on my gratitude list. :) ) And, as a person who loves starting new things my job keeps me far from bored.

On top of all of that, I get to work with incredibly talented people with huge hearts for God and for the people around them. People who regularly sacrifice their time and resources to do what they also love to do - share Gods love.

And while, in today's economy, I should be grateful for my job regardless, I'm not just grateful to have any job, I'm grateful to have the one I have.

How 'bout you? What are you grateful for today?

Have you ever felt like this guy?

Maybe your attempt to find "happily ever after" didn't end on a nationally televised sporting event. Maybe it happened in a middle school classroom or at a college party or maybe, like me, you got past the proposal, past the wedding even and you found your heart broken in the privacy of your own home looking into the eyes of the person who would later become your ex-spouse.

The truth is, most all of us can tell our story of a time when we were hoping in, believing in and trying for a love that lasts forever and coming up way short of forever.

That doesn't stop us from longing for a forever kind of love. I believe God designed us to long for this kind of love. But I also know that it can't happen outside of His help and guidance.

We're all broken. We all bring our stuff into each of our relationships. So how, on earth, do we figure out how to be a part of a love that lasts forever?!

Cypress Meadows is going to take a look at this question over the next four weeks as we host a series called "Staying in Love". Because falling in love is easy... but staying in love is a different story.

If you want to join the discussion and figure out what we can do to find a way to stay in love, come and be a part of our series.