Thankful.

I love this season. Decorating. Eating. Singing. Wrapping. Smiling.  Simply put, this season is the greatest time of the year. It's where people finally slow down long enough to realize how amazing life can be.  As I sit here listening to "Hallelujah" by John Cale (from my own blog--hey, I chose a playlist that I love. Why wouldn't I listen to it?), it seemed perfect to say "Hallelujah."  Hallelujah for how great our God is.  His love surmounts all of life's battles and tribulations.  He is why I am thankful.

I am thankful that He loves me, despite my evident flaws, enough to send His one and only son to die for me.  I am thankful that my life is in His hands, knowing that he does not want to harm me, but wants to better me.  I am thankful that He is using me to do His work here on earth, even when I feel inadequate or ill-suited.  I am thankful that He was finally able to break "through" the walls I had put up to keep my distance from Him.

I am thankful that God has blessed me with an amazing family.  He could not have placed me in a better one; we are small and geographically far apart, but we support and encourage each other to be the best versions of ourselves. I can be vulnerable, goofy, and neurotic with them.  They love me anyway.  Being in Colorado, away from the all, has been challenging this year, but I'm thankful for modern technology.

I am thankful for my friends.  Hands down, I have the best friends in the world.  I have friends who saw me through my awkward middle school years. Actually, let's be brutally honest, I'm still trying to overcome my inner-awkward, but alas, they are still here, loving and supporting me. Over the past couple of years, I have seen my best friends get new jobs, move away, get married, have babies (yikes!), and yet, when we come back together, it's like time has stood still.  We can still lip sync to Britney Spears and Celine Dion, make inappropriate jokes, cry, and laugh together.  We continue to have random adventures mixed in with philosophical life discussions.

I also have made some incredibly profound new friendships this year.  God pulled on my heart in May to join the middle school youth ministry program at Flatirons.  Yup. He definitely knows what he is doing.  Through it, I met people who challenge me and hold me accountable.  We're in the same stage in life: driven, young,  mid-twenty year-olds who aren't entirely ready to grow up.  I am thankful for this community of people who are simply trying to follow Jesus.

Middle-schoolers.  Yup. I am thankful for this awkward, smelly group of creatures, both the ones I teach and the ones I mentor.  Their honesty and lack of social cues are amusing, if not also refreshing.  I love being able to share my story and journey with them, hoping it can offer some insight into their own muddled lives. I'm also thankful that dressing up in ridiculous costumes is an expectation.

Teaching English.  I love to teach reading and writing. I am thankful for words and how writing is an art-form.  I wrote on Tuesday, that words are a writer's clay- we can mold them, manipulate them, deconstruct them, all to create a masterpiece that is not only appreciated by the artist's eyes but a reader's as well.  I love reading a great short story and engaging a middle schooler in a discussion on how it can be a lens to view our own world.  Seeing my students begin to write with voice and style and noticing how they eagerly want to share their work with me, makes my heart smile.  Even for me, after years of hating writing, I'm now beginning to see the world through Lucy's eyes-  a writing opportunity in seemingly mundane activities.

I am thankful for my house.  When I first closed on it, I hated it.  It carried too many painful memories.  I remember even wishing it would burn down-- and I wonder why I have OCD?  But as I sit at my dining room table and look out at my house, I am dumb-struck.  This is mine. It's my corner of the world.  It's my home. Yes, I am alone. Yes, I don't know how to take care of it. Yes, I refuse to pay too much in electricity, so it's constantly freezing here.  But, God has me here for a reason, and I'm learning to be content in the NOW. Now...I am a homeowner.

So there it is, my verbose, almost cliche, "What I'm Thankful For" speech. So...I love words. I clearly explained that in my seventh paragraph.