Thankful Much

Sometimes I find myself being thankful about the most off-the-wall things.

This morning -- not so much -- it was a pretty normal thing I was thankful for. Just hot water. You know that feeling that takes your heartbeat away when the water in the shower isn't quite up to temp. yet? Well, it only lasted a few short minutes, long enough to make me thankful for the hot water we have. I normally don't think about stuff like that, but it must have set me off in the thankful mood or something. And tonight I relized that thanksgiving is only a few short days away -- how fitting. Since I never participate in the "rage" of those thankful posts for the month of November, I might as well get my thankful thoughts out all at once, while I'm on a roll. ;)

So this is when my thanksgivings shift a little more to different things - you know, to all the complicated things in my life that God has blessed me with, but I don't even understand them, I can't fathom them yet. 

At work, I've been learning to be more of the type of person that people don't forget. Not in a selfish or vain way... But I only say that because there have been complete strangers in my life that I will never forget simply because they made me feel special. Anyway, that's one of my biggest goals right now... And today I found myself feeling thankful for learning another little lesson on how to brighten someone's day. It was actually waiting in the drive through after the person taking my order really misunderstood me. I didn't really care so I pulled up to the window anyway. The thing was, I waited forever for the most piddling little thing. Finally I turned my car off because I was waisting gas. I knew that it would have probably indicated to those inside that I was tired of waiting and if it was going to camping out her for another half hour, I might as well turn off my car. Yeah, so I was slightly irritated that it was taking ten minutes in a fast food drive through for one simple thing but I really wasn't that upset. When they gave me my food and apologized for the wait, all I said was, "thank you," and I started my car and left. Immediately, I knew that I could have practiced some of that "make people not forget you power" and who knows? -- maybe I would have turned a bad night on the job into a good one! Really all it would have taken was a smile, assuring them that it was no problem at all, then saying thank you. And I find that sometimes a smile is the biggest key, since they are after all contagious. :)

Well, today was also the second day that one of my sweet cousins stopped by and gave me something at work... This time it was chocolate (yum!) and the thoughtfulness of it just melted my heart that someone would just think of me when they are out and about? :) yeah, just terribly sweet!

That's not an odd thing to be thankful about either, but it does trigger a different level of thankfulness in me... It makes me thankful for humanity, and the little ways our hearts feel and perceive love. It's just a beautiful thing -- something I can't comprehend at times.

Another thing I'm so thankful for, and something I can't understand, is the plan God has for my life. There are places I want to go, things I want to accomplish, and a woman of good character that I want to become... And sometimes the thought of it wants to weigh I me because those three things right there reminds me that a lot of my life is up in the air right now. I feel like I'm barely getting to the point where I can start accomplishing some of it in the near future and it might be scary to think that one moments decision can change it all. But... 99% of the time I am just excited for the future and thankful that God really has a good plan for my life. And a quote my Sunday school teacher gave us:

"God gives his best to those who leave the choice with Him."

One last thing... ;) I'm thankful for animals: monkeys, elephants, puppies, big wild cats, and then your good old regular kitty-cat. They just make my heart bigger! :) Most of that is in reference so some of Devin Graham's latest videos in Nepal. I mean seriously... how cute is this monkey at 1:12 of this video???

Well, it's Thanksgiving and I didn't even realize how spot-on my thoughts were to the season...

Anyone else have any to share?

-MarLeahJoy