Things I'm grateful for

Rather than comment on the comments of yesterday's posts, I thought I'd share what I'm grateful for today.

First off, I'm grateful for God's love.  Without Him, nothing is possible and everything is meaningless.  If you don't know this, then you don't know Him.  I'm grateful for the trials in my life because they've caused me to learn and grow.  Someday, the big one will be resolved and I'll be grateful for the outcome, even though I don't know what it is.

I'm grateful secondly today that a long-overdue apology to my first wife was tendered and accepted.  It's nice to try and be civil after a couple of years of not being that.  I'm also grateful for her willingness to help me and my oldest boy fix the thing that's broken between us.  That's a good thing to be grateful for.

I'm grateful that people read, and kind of take away something from my blog.  Sharing the Good News is something I'm proud to do.  I'm grateful that people feel free to comment about what I write and I try to keep it positive.  It may not be as interesting a read as it used to be, but the stories are so much more positive and uplifting.

I'm grateful for the things that will come.  Lots of changes are headed my way and only time will tell what those will be.  I'm grateful for the peace I have about them.

I'm grateful for my family.  We're doing OK.  Financially, this whole mess has been hard on us, but we're doing OK.

I'm grateful for friends.  I have great friends.  I'm very lucky to have them and I hope they know how much they mean to me.  I know they get a little uncomfortable about all the "God Talk", but it's out of love for my friends that I share.  I want them to have the peace I have, to experience the joy I do, and to be headed for the same place I am when each of their journeys in this life come to an end.  That's my way to show my friends how much they do mean to me.  I'm grateful that I can count Tami Jo as a friend, BTW... and because we used to date I think it's important to clarify that all we are is just friends.  I'm still married in God's eyes.  It took going through some very tumultuous times to understand that divorce papers don't equal divorce.  I now have a very clear understanding of how God feels about marriage and I'm doing my part to stay that way and live in His words for us.

I'm grateful I have a job.  It's not the best job in the world, but right now, it's the best job for me.  I LIKE the nice, warm hangar.

I love my dog and I'm grateful for her.  I'd be really grateful to have Bucktard back, but he's doing well at the father-in-law's house.  He and Buck are pals and I don't have the heart to take him away from Melvin.  Bucky is STILL my dog and if you want to know what he means to me, re-read the post My Dog Max.

I'd be very remiss if I didn't say how extremely grateful I am for First Baptist Church in Ogden.  I'm so happy I found my way there and was welcomed.  I knew what kind of sinner I was (and so do some of the folks that go to the church) and yet I was welcomed.  I'm happy to say again that I joined the church last Sunday and I'm very humbled that they'd have me.  I've cleaned up my act quite a bit since that April morning I went to church.  I'm doing so much better now and am growing as a Christian every day.

I'm grateful I can share things with others.  It's so not about me anymore and I enjoy helping and staying in the background when I do.  You don't need to know about those things.  The One who needs to know, does.

And honestly, I could type this thing all day, but it's time for bed.

God Bless