My thankful heart...

Has some more thanking to do.

I woke up at 6:00am in Manhattan Beach earlier this week to move my car, so i wouldn't get a parking ticket. I got a bit lost so my five minute run outside... Turned into a twenty minute early morning walk in search of my friend's apartment. As I was walking I decided to pray because I was starting to get a bit frustrated at the situation.

I asked Jesus if there was anything He wanted to speak to me... and I felt like I heard the word, "Thankfulness".

Okay. Thankfulness.

So I just started to thank Him. "Thanks Jesus for a car to move early in the morning. Thank you Jesus for the beach near me and for all of the exercise I am getting on this walk to find the apartment. Thank you for my friend who let me borrow her beachside apartment...." I continued until I found the apartment and fell back asleep.

Later in the day as I was leaving the beach and driving to work, I commented to my friend about all of the people who were blessed enough to live by the beach. She said responded, "I bet they don't even know how special it is... Because it is so familiar."

I kept thinking about that idea all morning...

Familiarity breeds discontentment.

That must be why God wanted to remind me about thankfulness!

If I'm not thankful for all that I have been given in life, I will grow discontent with even my most favorite gifts, because I am so familiar with them.

I've met people in third world countries who have ridiculously less than me, and yet they are both happy AND willing to share what little they do have.

My friend posted recently, "It's not happy people who are thankful, it's thankful people who are happy."

So I have been on a kind of thankfulness mission. Which I felt would an appropriate way to introduce the photos from our Thanksgiving. So fun! All of our skaters were invited to join a pastor and their precious family at their house for the day. The pastor's wife is beautiful- a mother of 6, an actress, model, and a minister. (She has been teaching me a lot.) She prepared a gorgeous feast for us and after dinner she led us in a big performance in her backyard. The winners of the backyard show got dessert first.

My team won! Hooray pumpkin pie!