A few days ago i was having “one of those days” where i had to struggle throughout the day to keep my thoughts positive. Its not that everything went wrong, more that everything was the same. Things were just “blah” and i found myself meditating on parts of my life that i wish i could change. Now i suppose to an extent this is not always bad. Its beneficial to know where your weaknesses are and lay them before the Lord, pray, and work towards improving them. I was doing some of this, however not with the right heart. I was still focusing too much on the negatives instead of the positives. Therefore, instead of feeling better or accomplished it was just bringing me down.

Eventually i turned to my best friend, who offered me words of wisdom and encouragement. She didn’t have to say much, but those few sentences verbalized really held a lot of meaning. As you might guess, this isn’t the first time i’ve struggled with something and turned to her one of her sisters for help. It is such a blessing to have them in my life. By the end of the day, instead of feeling sorry for myself i was praising God for blessing me with such amazing and supportive friends.

Here are some of the things i appreciate most about them and doing with them this past year…

We travel.

on our way home from Long Island…

In montreal…

BASIC fall

BASIC spring

We have picnics in the park.

Ives is our favorite.

We have “girls nights”

We dress up.

And then we dress-up.

We take walks…

On the beach.

And in our small town.

We go to weddings. (and aren’t afraid to make it fun!)

We enjoy music at home.

…on stage.

…and in other’s homes.

We have holiday dinners.

We go out to dinner just because.

We Party!

We celebrate birthdays.

And eat LOts of naughty food.

We chill at the Salon.

And get our hair did.

We play on jungle gyms.

We love taking taking pictures together…

We laugh.

And so much more…

So if you haven’t noticed, i don’t really like to post very much. Every few months i get the ambition to write something or post a few pictures… and that is sufficient for me. Whats worse is that my motivation usually comes from a desire to express my frustration with the areas of my life that i wish were different- usually i decide not to post anything at that point to avoid the appearance of one who only posts for that reason. One thing you might not know is that i care a lot about what other people think of me.

Tonight i noticed a friends gchat status that stated “is going to write. really, she is.” Instead of aimlessly wondering the roads of the world wide web i decided writing a new post sounded like a good idea and much more productive than looking through a fb photo album for the third time. So here i am, writing for the first time in two months, determined not to write about all the reasons heaven will be a better place than this world- instead of the things i am thankful for in this life.

First off, I am so thankful for Jesus; his strength; his compassion; his suffering; his sacrifice. When i think about how much He gave i feel a conglomerate of feelings. -He gave more than just his life, He gave his dignity, all of himself physically, mentally, and spiritually so we could live eternally. Can you imagine what it took to endure the torture He went through? Would you allow yourself to be captured knowing that you would undergo excruciating almost unbearable pain, and then have the faith that your sacrifice is worth it all? Jesus did. For that i am thankful.- I feel loved. I feel great full. I feel undeserving. But most of all i feel a joy in knowing that one day the things of this world will be completely insignificant, sins will be forgotten, because in Jesus we are given a life beyond this one.

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