BUNCH OF ORANGES: "Faithfully & Thankfully Blessed!"

What a wonderful time of year… Thanksgiving… We had Tennessee Turkey Time and

lots of "Thankfulness"! I was thinking… as we got back and you know… went for a run... time to reflect on our trip and all our blessings. The song by Journey "Faithfully" came on and I just started to cry… I guess because it was 79 degrees and we were home and I was running in the beautiful colors of our Texas Fall…. I was Happy… feeling content… feeling "thankful" and cause I'm kind of a sap like that. I was feeling thankful for the "faithfulness" of the Lord! He is ALWAYS there for us during every season of this life. I am "thankful" for our family & friends & how they love us "faithfully" no matter what.

I love the memories of our time with family. I love the outdoor run I had a couple times, just in the woods… I had Sonny with me and I felt like Laura Ingalls running in the country with her dog. I just needed a farm dress and a bonnet! I loved the raccoons that came to visit while we were there. I love the time I got to sit with grandmothers and listen to them talk. I love having time with my motherinlaw and sisterinlaws in a new way of taking a spin class together. I love seeing my sister with a baby! I love getting to smell and kiss and hold my nephew. I love being with family when the news comes in that a new baby GIRL Orange has entered the world! I love my sisters pineapple casserole (ok… it's mom's recipe but she made it and it was Good!) I love my mama's potato salad! :) I love getting to see friends while we were there!

I love feeling blessed and thankful… even though life hasn't been perfect. It's been a whole lot of good and in many moments felt perfect… but I think that is because our Lord is there "faithfully". Sometimes we don't feel him because the pain is too deep or life is too confusing… sometimes we do feel him because we are good and we think he must be "taking care of us"…. sometimes we feel him through others and their love and support.

While I was in Tennessee I hugged many a necks….I love hugs! Some were because we were greeting one another, some because they were expressing sweet sentiments of how proud of us they were, some were celebrating the birth of a new baby, some were to say goodnight & love you, some were in celebration of an engagement to marriage, some were a new baby on the way, some were because the cancer had come back, some were the loss of a parent recently, some were the scary upcoming surgery for their young child, some were with the thoughts of you are old & we might not see you again, some were goodbye until next time. So many hugs, so much love, so much support, so much history, so many memories, so much amazement. I hope & pray that I can be "faithfully" there for my loved ones the way they were and have been for me in the past. I hope they can feel my love & support & prayers. I hope they can feel the "faithfulness of the Lord" through their happy times and their difficult times and through them all can still be "thankfully blessed."

Have you discovered the Love of Christ yet? He can be Forever Yours…. Faithfully.