28 Things That I am Thankful For

    I decided I wanted to write down twenty-eight things that I am thankful for my birthday. Twenty-eight representing how old I will be in two days. So I finished cleaning the kitchen after dinner and headed upstairs to my journal to start writing. Seventeen minutes later I had my list. Of course, there are many more things and people who I am thankful for but these are the ones that God brought to my mind and heart first. I then got up at 4:30 Thursday morning, I was born at 4:40 am. Sat down with my list and started thanking God for all these blessings. What are you thankful for today friends?

1. Jesus dying on the cross for me. If God had not sent His one and only son to die on the cross for me. Then I would not be here.
2. My God who never fails me. I serve an amazing God who never fails me and never changed. He is the only person who never changes and thus will never fail us. We can always count on Him. Friends, family, and the rest of the world may fail us, and that is okay because a) God will not fail us and b) we are sinful human beings and therefore not perfect and going to fail each other. There have been many unknown seasons in my life where God gently reminded me that it was okay because He never fails.
3. My husband. The man of my dreams. My encourager, my biggest cheerleader, my knight in shining armor. I love you, Sweetie. You are one of my favorite gifts from God.
4. My family. I am grateful that I come from a big family whom I love. I am also thankful for my in-laws and the way they welcomed me into their family all those years ago as if I had always been a part of their family.
5. Blessing. My four-legged best friend. When we were shopping for Blessing I was out for a walk praying about her name. I had a few ideas floating around in my head. God then told me her name would be "Blessing." When I asked why He said, "Because she is going to be a blessing." I figured that was a good answer and told my hubby what God said. From the moment we brought her home she has been a blessing.
6. My health. Now I do not have perfect health, I do have things that I have to deal with and occasionally they get in the way, but they do not dictate my life the way that heart problems, diabetes, cancer, etc affect others. So even though I am not perfectly healthy, I am thankful that my health problems do not get in the way of living my life.
7. My hobbies and the passions that God has put on my heart. Reading, writing, photography, and training Blessing. I have only started digging into these activities on a serious and regular basis over the last year or so, but I am thankful for them and the joy that they bring me.
8. The skills that God has given me so that I can earn a living and help my hubby with our bills. some days people ask me what I want to do for a living or simply for a short-term paycheck. I have worked in a handful of industries and gained lots of skills from them. One day I was wondering if having too many skills was a bad thing, then it occurred to me that some people have limited skills and thus limited options. So I am thankful that I have lots of skills and thus lots of options.
9. My mom. For teaching me about Jesus. If it was not for her, I would not be a believer.
10. My dad. He is always ready and excited for an adventure. Whether that be a bike ride, hike, skating, moving me around the province, or troubleshooting my home appliances.
11. My father-in-law. For always fixing our car. He and my hubby are down in the shop getting our new car fixed up as I write them. Raising the man of my dreams (along with my mother-in-law of course) and welcoming me into his family.
12. My sister. Girl talk, need I say more. I love going to weekend visits to her house. Big back yard with two dogs for Blessing to play with, and her two boys adore my hubby. To me, that makes for a pretty great weekend.
13. The work ethic that my parents instilled in me at a young age.
14. My ability to move without any physical limitations. I do not require the assistance of a cane, walker, or anything else. If I had these limitations I would not be able to share in Blessing's love of running. I suspect that many people, myself included taking our ability to move freely without any limitations for granted. So today I am thankful that I do not have limitations.
15. My husband working and bringing in an income. He has struggled to find work that he enjoys over the years and now he has found one and I am grateful for it.
16. My freedom in Canada. Normally I take my freedom for granted. Not anymore though. With Covid-19 and all the changes and restrictions, especially over the last few months, I am reminded of just how thankful I am that I live in Canada.
17. A roof over my head. Many people do not have this. I am thankful that I have a roof over my head and a place to call home.
18. Running water. Clean running water, hot or cold. Many people in third world countries, or even in our back yard do not have this basic human need. I am thankful that I have them.
19. Electricity. I am grateful to live in a first-world country.
20. Freedom to worship God. I have the freedom to drive to my local house of worship and enjoy fellowship with other believers and not be afraid that I will be arrested or killed for it. Thank you, Lord.
21. My family is under one roof. My hubby came down south at Easter to start working for his grandfather. A job that we are very grateful for. It was hard at first having my hubby away during the week, then we got used to it and by the end, we were sick of it. We miss Cambridge but we are happy to be together again.
22. Our new car. With all the travel in the last six months, our Nissan Altima died on us just before our move. Which was part of the reason why we decided to move early. Well we lined up a new is a week ago and now we are just finalizing the paperwork for it and will start enjoying it this weekend.
23. Tea with honey. One of my favorite way to relax and unwind. Usually paired with a book and or milk chocolate.
24. Milk chocolate. I may love living a healthy and active life, but I also love my chocolate.
25. The colour pink. my happy colour.
26. My many wonderful friends from near and far. Way too many to name or count.
27. All the places I have lived and the people I have met. It has been hard moving to different towns because it means leaving people behind, but on the flip side, it is a joy because it means that I have touched people's lives and they have touched mine.
28. Another year of life. Thank you, Lord.

I pray this post finds you well and reminds you to thank God for the big things and the little things.

God Bless

~Ruth

For today's photos I wanted to do a self-portrait photoshoot for my birthday. It took a lot of strength to do it because I did not want to feel prideful or vain about it. In fact I had a hard time telling my hubby about it because I was embarrassed. I knew he would not judge me, but that just goes to show how nervous I was about doing it. I simply do not want people to get the wrong impression of me. My motivation for the photoshoot was a) practicing portrait photography and b) a little self-esteem boost/birthday present to myself.

Finding my Worth in Christ

    This past week my hubby, Blessing, and I moved down to my hubby's hometown because he started working for his grandfather's mechanic shop a few months ago.

    After a successful moving weekend, hubby went back to work and I continued the unpacking process.

    Before long, a day, maybe two, I started to feel very worthless because I was not bringing in an income yet. Yes, I know how dramatic that sounds, we have been in a new town for less than a week, mostly settled into our apartment, and yet I'm complaining that I do not have a place of employment to go to yet. Just humor me for a minute. My husband is faithfully going to work every day, for which I am very grateful. Because we are staying on the family property for now, which is above his grandfather's mechanic shop, everyone downstairs is working, and I am not. Guess you could say I  feel worthless and jealous.

    Don't get me wrong. I have been putting out resumes and working on making our new living space a home. I am not simply sitting around watching tv all day.

    It occurred to me mid-week how much of my self-worth comes from doing versus being. This friend is when God pulls me aside and we have a good heart-to-heart. He reminded me that I am a daughter in Christ. Period. He reminded me that I find security in my account balance verse how much I trust God to provide for my needs. Ouch, yeah, that stung. I know He will provide for me because He always has and because God never changes, therefore He always will provide for me.

    So for the last few days, I have been praying and wrestling through my trust issues with God and wanting to work and bring in an income. He has also taught me that the desire to work is good. God gives us the skills to work and provide for our families. When we want a job for the wrong reason, ie to make money instead of sharing our faith with our coworkers.  As much as I do not want to admit it, I will be honest with myself and with you and say that I wanted a job for the money. So it is also time for a perspective change.

    Funny enough, my husband and I had planned for me to have a week off after we moved so I could set up our home, and here we are, end of the week, and I did not enjoy it. Funny how that turned out. I completely forgot that I wanted a week off, but once I saw everyone else working, I wanted to work too.

    By now, I'm sure you can tell that my thoughts and heart have been all over the place last few days. If you are still reading and have not gotten lost, I give you a gold star. Thankfully God is helping me iron out the wrinkles.

    Part of the problem this past week is that I do not sit very well. Of course, I have not been physically sitting, I have spent the week setting up my morning routine, decorating our apartment and making it a home for my family, and finding lots of new places for Blessing and me to walk. So despite setting up our life here, I am not bringing in an income yet and therefore feel worthless among other things. As you can see it has been a very unpleasant time in my head and my heart.

    Thankfully God has blessed me with a supportive family. Between my husband and a few other members, I have been able to vent my thoughts and share my heart with them and receive encouragement.

    This brings me to this morning. During my devotional time with God, I was writing out my prayers and pouring out my heart to God. He reminded me of my worth in Christ. He then led me to Casting Crown's "I am Yours," as I meditated on the lyrics and allowed it to wash over me. I started to feel at peace because I am a daughter of Christ and am worthy because He makes me worthy.

    Yes, I am still looking for work and am looking forward to contributing to my family's finances. I am okay because God is in control and will take care of it all. Okay, fine, I am not completely fine yet, I am still working on accepting it all, but in time I will be.

    You see, on a human level, I am a strong, capable, resilient, hardworking woman who is used to working a physically demanding job and then coming home to my family. So when you take away my place of employment, all I have to do is make dinner and exercise Blessing. One family member reminded me that I am used to working it is hard for me to sit. They also encouraged me to use my time off to lean into God that much more because God has given me some time off.

    Another friend reminded me that it's been a crazy few months, now God is giving me a chance to catch my breath. So I am going to try to enjoy it now. I want to pursue my relationship with God more, and dig deeper into my hobbies and develop my skills in writing and photography.

    So there it is friends, it has been an emotional week. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. I can "sit" and rest in God knowing that He is in control and as long as I am obedient and follow after Him, everything will work out.

    I hope this post at the very least did not confuse you too much. My posts are usually much easier to follow, but that is life. It is not always smooth sailing. Have a wonderful evening friends, and God Bless. I am off to watch a movie with my hubby.

"As I stood under the tree, in its shade, I am reminded of how we are covered by God's mercy and grace." 

After I wrote the rough copy of this post I went for a photo walk to find a picture to go along with it. Before I took this picture, God gave me the above thought. By blessed friends.

God Bless

~Ruth