Gratitude

We trust all of you are literally "stuffed" from the Thanksgiving dinners last week. I found it amazing that we can eat that much and still be hungry the following day!

Monty and I got wrapped up in the "black Friday" thing. We got up at 4am and headed to Walmart. The thrill of the looking was a blast! From there we headed across town and back again for Menards. We aren't big purchasers but the couple of small items we found made it worth getting up in the dark of the night! Monty thinks we need to make it an annual event, just to be in the midst of it all!

For those of you wondering, Ms Faye did have a holiday dinner at her sisters and then headed home. She had been staying with Joyce the entire time and going home wasn't (and still isn't) easy. She admitted she ended up in Mike Jr's room the first night! Please continue to hold her up in your prayers.

Monty's grandmother is doing great after her hip replacement! An amazingly strong lady for 83 years of age! His uncle was released and is resting as comfortably as possible at home with Hospice by his side.

Yesterday in church Pastor Dave had a message on gratitude. We all have heard the line about "what's in your heart comes out through your mouth". It's true. But he challenged us to make a gratitude journal where we daily record (in writing) 5 things we have been thankful for that day. Now since this is the 2nd time I have received this challenge I thought it might be something I really need to do. I read about this journal in another scriptural magazine that we started receiving from nowhere. So . . . I now have this journal and it's amazing how sitting down at the end of the day and thinking back over that day brings so many blessings to light! We all know we have so many things to be thankful for but we also know how easy it is to get caught up in all the negative that happened during the day. If we really focus on the positive it will change the way we see everything! I would challenge everyone out there to try this journaling thing. You don't have to use alot of words. Just a short word or two will do. You might also find that narrowing the blessings down to just 5 is difficult when you stop to think about the good things instead of the bad.

Thanks for keeping up with us and all that is happening. We are still trying to get some rest while we are home. I think rest is a 4 letter word but occasionally it happens. We have some things in the works and are looking at possibly heading "out" after the first of the year. I just might need to call on some of our past teams and see if anyone is interested in doing some home building??!! Keep your ears tuned in and let's see where God takes us!

Until next time . . . Susan and Monty