Week of Thankfulness - Monday

This week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. Therefore, today I will be kicking off a Week of Thankfulness blog. Each day this week, Monday through Friday, I will post blogs, each about something different that I am thankful for and why. I know we are all truly thankful throughout the year, but a lot of times our thankfulness just goes unsaid. So take the Week of Thankfulness Challenge! If you have a blog, maybe this is a way you can share of what you are thankful for and if you don't share with your spouse or a friend as to what you are thankful for and why.

Monday:
I am thankful for Jesus. I am thankful that He longs to have a relationship with me, just as He does with everyone. I am thankful that He alone is the Provider, Sustainer, and Redeemer of our lives. He is the provider when we cannot provide for ourselves. He is the sustainer of life when we encounter life's hardships and feel as though we cannot go on. It is He that is the Redeemer of sin, changing lives, mending families, and fills our souls with a Redemption that only He can give. More than anything, I am thankful that King Jesus is faithful. He is faithful even when I am not. Just today, I was reminded of the chorus of Great is Thy Faithfulness:

"Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me! "

Oh how He is faithful and I am thankful.

I am thankful that He has "placed the stars in the sky and He knows them by name" because it reminds me that if He knows the names of the stars, then He certainly knows not only MY name but He knows the breaks of my heart, the disappointment that overwhelms me, and my fear of the unknown and He longs for me to run to Him and let Him take them from me so that I can live with His joy - for His glory.

The last few weeks have been tough for several different reasons, running much deeper than simply not having a teaching position. Although I am the one writing this post, I am still encouraged, simply by reminding myself of exactly who Jesus is and my dependence on Him and the power of His Truth.