Thankfulness Blog #2 New Image

As I stated in TB#1, my list will include the things that I've been so thankful for that I've been brought to tears.

Today I am reminded, as I wait in the realm of the unknown about my future with the New Image Thrift Store, how thankful I am that God has allowed me to use the gifts He has given me to start and be a part of a ministry that has filled a void in our community for over 5 years now. I tear up at times when I reflect on the people I have had the privilege of befriending that I may have never "rubbed shoulders with" had we not started the New Image Thrift Store (formerly known as "The Light").

Our mission at the New Image is to find innovative ways to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of individuals and families in rural Woodbury county and surrounding counties in Iowa. I love this ministry so much I don't have to look at the mission statement to copy it down, it is truly a part of me. Off the top of my head, for the most part, I can give you some pretty accurate stats about whatever you'd like to know from the number of families we have visited with in the past 9 months (98 families, approx 270 people) to the dollar amount of free items that have been given away in the past 2 years (approx $15,000 worth). Although my involvement has been more or less at different times, my heart is at the store every Saturday morning from 9am - noon.

If you've never had the privilege of visiting the store, I can only tell you the atmosphere that is created by the volunteers and the guests who come to see us is absolutely contagious. I am so thankful to those who have chosen to open up their lives to let us in enough to pray with them and check-in on how they are doing each week. I am thankful to be part of a ministry that takes "hearing the Word" to "doing the Word" seriously. The fellowship, worship, and unity is stronger there than many Sunday morning services I've been a part of in the past. As my time there may be coming to an end, I can't help but shed tears of thankfulness for God allowing me to be part of something so great.

Thankful Blog #1

I've seen all the thankfulness spreading around on facebook, so I thought I'd join in my own special way.  This time of year I always start having conversations in my head about thankfulness.  I don't know why I can't just take things at face value and start listing some things I'm thankful for.  Instead, I start asking myself questions like:

What does being thankful feel like? Like how do I know if I'm thankful?
Am I thankful enough or do I take too many things for granted?
How can I be more thankful?
If I don't make a weekly list of things I'm thankful for, does that mean I'm not a thankful person?
Do I have to verbally express thanks to God for him to know I'm thankful?

Wellllll...I did answer one of my questions. For me, I KNOW without a doubt that I am thankful if I get teary-eyed over something. I am a bit of an emotional sap, so sometimes it doesn't take a whole lot. But I'd rather be a little tenderhearted than not be able to feel the emotion that goes with gratitude. My answer to being MORE thankful is simply asking God to make me appreciate more things and have my eyes opened to the things I should be thankful for.

So begins my Thankful Blog. I have no plan for how many items will be on it or for how long or how often. No fun pictures (yet). I just know I've had some thankfulness lately and wanted to share it with the world...because when you're thankful, you just can't help but blurt it out to everyone! Well that's me anyway.

The items that make my list will be things that I have been sooooo thankful for, it brought tears (small or large) to my eyes. I hope you know what I'm talking about.

First and foremost (sounds like an oscar winning speech), but seriously, something I have cried tears of joy over is my thankfulness to my God who created me and saved me from myself. Though I have worshipped other things and people, made those things or people into my god for a time, the ONE TRUE God always has hold of my heart and wins me back with his love and mercy.

He made a way out for me through His son, Jesus, who I sometimes affectionately refer to as JC. I wanted to type, “He is my everything” but it’s more like He SHOULD BE my everything and when I make Him my everything, my perspective on everything else changes because He is awesome like that.

I get a little or lot teary-eyed sometimes thinking about how, until I found my identity in WHO HE says I AM, I was trying to please a whole lot of people and found myself saying yes to a whole lot of stupid things.

My life is truly not my own and I’m thankful for that because I make a mess of things when I do it my way instead of the way I was created to be.