Defining Relationships

Do you ever make "I want..." lists? Every twelve to eighteen months or so I have to stop and make a list of the things I want in life. Otherwise, I get really caught up in what everyone else wants for my life...or their life...or his and her expectations...or I play the my*life*isn't*as*cool*as*pinterest game....and I miss me.

So this week, I made a list. And I shared my list with my husband. And he brought up a very good point - that in order to accurately depict what qualities, and habits, and colors you want in your life, one needs to prioritize and group by category. And I haven't done all that yet.

But I picked one thing, one simple thing, out of the middle of the list. One thing I have control over, and can add simply into my life, and I'm starting with this: thankfulness.

Because really, everything else flows from our relationship with our Abba. And by being thankful, I recognize daily the relationship between Him and me. In physics and chemistry, we always tackled a problem by first defining all relationships between the known objects. Once we knew how things worked together, where they stood in proximity to one another, we could sort out the rest.

And thankfulness adds that defining element to my life.

"Thank You, Abba, for sunshine this morning." (My Abba is the Creator, and Giver of Good Gifts, I am His child.)

"Thank You, Abba, for the grace to be kind at work." (My Abba is constantly creating me into His image, I am His image bearer.)

Now as I uttered these little thanksgivings earlier today, I didn't really sort out all the theological implications of them. But I think my heart knew. Because as I breathed those words, my heart fell into place. I remembered that I am His, the child of the Great Provider, and I moved on with more peace in my soul.

There's a book by Ann Voskamp that I want to read called "1000 Gifts." I've been following her blog at aholyexperience.com and I love it. One of her posts a week or so ago had this on it. I've printed off several, and I'm using it to write down 7 things I'm thankful for every day.

The tough part is not writing down the same things day after day. I am thankful for my husband every day - but I'm making myself think of new reasons I'm thankful for him.I'm excited to see how this will strengthen my faith in my Abba, and how it will effect my outlook on life.

I've even printed off a couple for my girls....and I'd encourage you to as well. Having a little book to fill is a fantastic reminder to be consistently, and purposefully thankful.