Our Son is now 19 months old. He doesn’t have a lot of words down, though he has his own version of a fair number of signs. He cannot, however, communicate to us clearly yet. We have to determine when he isn’t feeling well - which may or may not be clear.
This past Sunday, he was pretty clingy, and didn’t pass Grandma’s “kiss test.” (This is a test in which she kisses his forehead, and the temperature feels warmer than normal.) So we pulled out the thermometer (one of those nifty ones that you swipe across the forehead) and checked his temperature. Sure enough, he had a fever. My poor little man is a little under the weather.
I am thankful, though, that we had a thermometer with which we could obtain a quantified observation to reach a definitive conclusion. Without those types of facts, I’m much more prone to worry and anxiety. The fact that he has a fever calls for certain steps, like Tylenol to help reduce it, drinking cold milk, a bath in tepid water if necessary. Not knowing if those steps needed to be performed, however, would drive me to distraction.
I am thankful that God has provided thermometers as a way in which I can obtain the information necessary to derive a definite answer to the question of whether or not my son has a fever.
Dear Lord,
I just want to thank You for all that You are doing in my life and in the lives of others. Help me to be more cognizant of even a tiny portion of those things, so that I might live constantly in the knowledge of You. When I look at the world, may I always see You, Your glory, and Your Victory.
Lord, help me to be a magnifying glass of Your works. May my life be ever and only a testimony of You. Help me to be intentional in following You as a disciple. Help me to keep my focus staid upon You, so that my life is simply an overflow of Your goodness and mercy and grace.
Thank You for Your leading. Thank You for Your Love, Grace, mercy, and for redeeming me from my sin. Thank You for Keeping My Soul. Thank You for the material things that You give us like Laptops and Disposable Diapers and Camelbaks. Thank You for the Truth and Wisdom that You give us to govern the other things that You have entrusted to us, and to reveal that truth and wisdom to others.
Thank You for the work that You do in our hearts. May we, Your children, rise up and praise You.
In Jesus’ Risen Name,
Amen.
Up until about three years ago, I had always kept long hair - at least past my shoulder blades. I cut it for various reasons, but decided to grow it back this year. Prior to the big cut, my grandma had crocheted me an array of snoods.
If you’ve never heard of a snood, it’s like a hairnet, often with beads (there are actually two types - you can read about it here). Snoods were often worn in the renaissance period. Most of the snoods that my grandma made cover just the pony tail instead of the whole head. I enjoyed wearing these, as they were a practical, yet different way to keep my hair back. When I cut my hair, there wasn’t enough to fill out the snoods she had made for my long hair, so I wasn’t able to wear them for awhile.
Today, my family joined a few others to go for a picnic and then a jeep ride. Having been on a jeep ride before, I knew there would be a significant amount of wind tangling my hair, the length of which has just reached the bottom of my shoulder blades. Wind makes the worst kind of tangles: dry and brittle. I realized with delight that my hair was long enough to fit into one of the whole hair snoods, which would keep all of my hair together without letting the wind pick out pieces to tangle.
It worked like a charm! I am glad that the Lord gave my grandma her creative talent, and that through that, He provided me with an easy means to keep my hair from becoming a rat’s nest, which may very well have brought up the wish of cutting my hair again!
What is your idea of heaven? Many people think of heaven as a place that they will be on constant vacation. I disagree with that - unless you define vacation as the joy of serving the Lord. I believe that we will still have tasks given to us by God, that we will serve one another, and that (much like now) our service of Him will bring Him glory in a myriad of ways. I imagine that there will be “times” by which we should accomplish certain things. I don’t have a great grasp on exactly what all that will look like, but that’s my idea of heaven and eternity.
I enjoy considering eternity, and what time must look like to God in light of the idea that God exists outside of time (the fourth dimension). The classic hypothetical perspective of the idea is that we can’t understand God in the fourth dimension in the same way that a two-dimensional character can’t understand how we exist in the third dimension. It’s a diverting exercise.
As I tried to wrap my mind around existing outside of time, I wondered what time would be like for us in our resurrected form in eternity. Would it be important? The second dimension is still an important dimension to us in the third, and God created the fourth dimension for a reason. So time must be important. I can imagine, though, that having so much time, would make it far less of a commodity (and priority) than it is for us as we exist inside it. Time is incredibly valuable here.
This thought made me thankful that I exist inside of time now, so that I can learn (and discipline myself) to use it well. Not that I won’t necessarily use it well in eternity. I just think that it’s a privilege to be able to obtain the discipline of time-management now, while it “counts.” Then, in eternity, I will have a jump-start, so-to-speak, on paying attention to when things need to be done.
Perhaps I am still too caught within the perception of time in that thinking, but that’s about as far as I can get. Beyond that, I will simply trust in God, “not lean on [my] own understanding...” (Proverbs 3:5b), and “...in everything give thanks...” (Thessalonians 5:18) I will falter and fail at times, but that is why God has given us Grace. His grace is sufficient for me (2 Corinthians 12:9a). In fact, it’s overwhelming.
If you’ve never heard of a traction table, it’s a machine you will often find at a chiropractor’s office. You lie on the table and it has a series of three rollers that move from your hips toward your neck in succession to help offset the downward pull of gravity on your spine. It feels quite nice, and usually helps my body for the rest of the day.
Today, after my chiropractic adjustment, I even felt my blood flow improve a little while on the traction table. The rollers' action feel so nice, and it's mentally soothing to know that my body is receiving regenerative care. It can be hard sometimes to not give in to the angst produced by the usual pain of fibromyalgia, and thus think that my body is just constantly degenerating. Doing good things for my body can help to alleviate that battle.
I am thankful that God gave me the opportunity to use a traction table today, and for the good that it did my body. I pray for the day when God will heal my body - whether He chooses to use “modern medicine,” a miracle, or my physical death and “reincarnation” into a new eternal body. His timing is perfect, and I am thankful that His timing for today included an experience of a little alleviation. To God be the glory.
When a friend of mine has something that I decide to get for myself, I often run into the issue of not being able to find the item for purchase. Stores cycle their inventory, and don’t carry it anymore - even online. It is in these instances that I am rather thankful for Amazon.com, because more often than not, a search will reveal the sought item.
I love it because the items that I usually go out of my way to find are those that will make life a bit easier. I’m not really one to buy clothes or figurines that someone else has - but hangers that will store your clothes in a smaller space and make the clothes more visible at-a-glance? Definitely.
So I am thankful for Amazon.com, and how God uses it in my life as a means to make life a little easier... or at least more organized.
I have been working on a knitted sweater for about eight months now, and am almost finished. While I do come up with my own knitting designs, I usually like to start with someone’s honest-to-goodness pattern. I follow it to a tee and try to understand the reasoning for doing it the way that they did, so that when I vary it, I don’t make a huge mistake. I benefit greatly from the tips, tricks, and instructions noted in knitting patterns, and am thankful for the knowledge. For this sweater, I am in the process of following the pattern precisely, and it makes for a beautiful sweater (I’m nearly done)!
I find myself comparing a knitting pattern loosely with the Bible. The Bible is, after a fashion, a pattern for us to follow in life. We wouldn’t want to pattern our lives exactly like all of those in it - some of the people are more examples of what not to do, and how God prevails despite their sin. There are also those, like Paul, who we should pattern our lives after. Not precisely, though, I would argue, as God uses each of us and our talents according to where He has us. I’m certainly not in the position that Paul was in: establishing the church during the Roman empire. I am, however, a follower of Christ, and the Bible has plenty of tips, tricks, and instructions on the subject (or worldview, really; it affects everything).
I am thankful for knitting patterns, and how we can use them to pass on knowledge to fellow knitters. I am also thankful that God gave us a pattern (if you will) to follow in the Bible, which leads us to “...everything pertaining to life and godliness through a true knowledge of Him who called us[.]”
