Happy Thanksgiving - Thankful for...

It's hard to imagine that it's Thanksgiving again.  But alas, it is.  Not that I'm complaining... I love eating until my brains fall out... taking a nap... watching some football... then heading in to eat again. 

This time of the year, it's easy to turn our minds towards being thankful. 

Colossians 3:17 (New International Version, ©2010)

¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


So... in the spirit of the holidays, here are a few of the things that I'm thankful for this year:

• My wife... who is amazing and incredible!!! 
• A great new church filled with incredible teenagers, amazing staff, great leaders.
• An incredible team of volunteers that love students and give of their time sacrificially.
• All of our new Zanesville friends who have welcomed us into their lives.
• My parents... who are allowing us to live in their basement while we get back on our financial feet.
• Running... it's amazing how much this has changed my life in the last year... since I ran my first race one year ago today in Naperville... and I missed running a Turkey Trot this year.  But since I started running, I've lost 40 pounds and changed my family tree!
• Starbucks... yeah, I can be that shallow...
• A God and Savior who forgives my mistakes... loves me unconditionally when I don't deserve it... and continues to use my best efforts in spite of myself.  

I have much to be thankful for!!!  But that's enough for now... where's the turkey???

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your's!!!

Jim

Tweet

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It's hard to imagine that Thanksgiving is here already. But it is.

It's a good day to be thankful! Here are a few things that I'm thankful for right now:

• my wife and family (she's working on some great food and letting me sit here and blog... that's great)
• our house (last year we were just getting ready to move in... now we've been living here for a year)
• our students... who are incredible.
• our volunteers... who are a great team to hang, run and work with.
• our friendships!!!
  
• of course... I'm most thankful for a God who loves me, sent His Son for me and provided me with forgiveness that I couldn't provide for myself otherwise.
  

I hope that today you spend some time doing what is most important... hanging with friends and family!!! And of course, eating a lot!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from me and my family!

Jim

Happy Thanksgiving (thankfulness...)

So...
It's Thanksgiving. I'm sitting here on the couch waiting for the Packers vs. the Lions coming on here in a few minutes. And so I thought I'd take a couple of minutes and share some things that I'm thankful for (in no particular order).

-my Savior
-an incredible wife (who cares enough for our family and its finances to work on Thanksgiving... even opened this morning at 4 am... ugh!!!)
-a great group of students that I get the privilege to work with every week (most of which have been throwing turkeys and mashed potatoes at me on Facebook all day)
-my great parents (whom I spent an hour and half with on the phone today... and would love to be eating turkey with them today... my dad and I have the habit of "carving the turkey" in the basement together so that we can eat some before we take it upstairs and mom doesn't know... don't worry... she never reads my blog anymore unless I tell her...)
-a couple of good football games (Packers v. Lions... Cowboys v. Jets...)
-the Pauleys and the Reffetts (who invited my wife and I to join their families for Thanksgiving and we're actually taking them up on it)
-the Jacksons, the Jansons and the Watkins (who also invited us for Thanksgiving... but we didn't take them up on it)
-a great church family that I have the opportunity to serve at FVCC
-great staff relationships (Steve and I had lunch yesterday for an hour and a half... Chinese buffet day!!!)
-having my Cruizer back (it was in the shop this week... rental cars stink!)
(I said in no particular order... its mostly off the top of my head)
-a pretty good Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade today (I'm a sucker for the holiday parade thing... and I'll watch the Rose Parade on New Years Day as well...)
-my education at Lincoln Christian Seminary (although right now I'm in the midst of deadline time... so I'm wondering how thankful I really am...)
-friendships (which aren't as far down the list as it would appear... too many to mention...)

I think that's probably good enough...
If I think of some others, I'll add them later.

Wherever you're at today, have a Happy Thanksgiving. And remember to be thankful for what you have regardless of what the television tries to convince you that you don't have (at Sears, JCPenny's, etc) that you have to go out at 5 am tomorrow morning and buy.

Psalm 100:3-5
"Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations." NIV

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jim