THIS is the day....

I've been very encouraged and comforted by the current series at church...Unopened Gifts.

When I used to go to church sporadically I was always amazed that the message was exactly what I needed to hear. When I first started going regularly, the same was true. Over time that became less true. I was learning during church and parts of the message would seem to be aimed to me, but it has been awhile that a whole message really seemed to be targeting me. The first week of this series was on gratitude and it was exactly what I needed to hear. That whole sermon was aimed right. at. me. Gratitude--learning to be thankful for imperfect gifts and flawed people. Looking at what you have instead of what you do not. Praising God for the blessings that surround us.

I go through spurts with gratitude. At times since the last miscarriage, I've been overwhelmed by how lucky I am to be surrounded by the family and friends that I have in my life. Other times I seem to forget that and focus on the flaws and imperfections. That seems to have been a real challenge lately. Gotta stop doing that. Ron mentioned a statement that CS Lewis made about there being a fine line between pretending to be thankful and being thankful. Fake it until you make it. Ron challenged us to write down 5 postives in our lives at the end of each day this week. Happy Thoughts!!! I'd already brought back Happy Thoughts just a few days before and here was an endorsement about the importance of them. Wow, sometimes the messages about what we need to do in our lives are subtle and sometimes they just hit you up the side of the head from all directions. I consider myself hit.

The second week of the series was about being thankful for work--how important work is to God and how we should rejoice in the work we do. This one is hard for me. I don't dislike my job and I'm grateful to have a pretty secure job while the economy is falling apart, but most of the time I'm a long way from seeing my job as a gift. Gotta work on that one.

Problems was the topic of the third week. Honestly, I had to go back and look up this one. Apparently it didn't make as much of an impression on me. I remember Daniel discussing moles. Sometime when its not 2:47 am, I'll listen to the sermon again on the web. Maybe I don't remember much about this discussion because that was the weekend our garage door broke. Was I too wrapped up in that problem of ours to appreciate the significance of the sermon? I'm not sure. I remember one of my happy thoughts the next day was about being thankful for the broken garage door because that meant I had a garage and I know my garage is a lot more shelter than some people are blessed with. When we can look at our problems and be thankful for them, it truly allows us to experience gratitude in other areas of our life.

This past week was laughter. Just what I needed to hear. Again. THIS is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24. This verse seems to say different things, depending on which word you emphasize. For now, I need to emphasize that first word. As this pregnancy progresses, each day I will remind myself that THIS is the day. I will try not to worry about other days. I will try not to worry about "what ifs." I will rejoice in THIS day. One of P's favorite Bible verses is Matthew 6:34 So never worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (ISV). Its hard to think about tomorrow and plan for the future without worry and at first I had a hard time with this verse (ok, so I still have a hard time with not worrying!)--I thought it was saying not to think about tomorrow. And hey, I'm a planner. Not thinking about tomorrow is not in my genetic code. But when I consider the verse from Matthew along with THIS is the day... it makes more sense. Kinda cool how all that Biblical stuff relates back to itself, huh?

This series has been really important to me. I hope it would have been regardless of what was going on with our lives right now--I'm sure I would have heard different things in the message if my life was different right now. But the timing of what I heard could not have been more perfect.

This is the day. I am pregnant. My HCG levels doubled between Monday and Wednesday. I have progesterone headaches, can't stay awake past 7 pm, and am up at 3 am with my mind racing. When a reasonable time of morning comes and the day truly begins, I start Lovenox injections. I am so grateful. This is the day the Lord as made. I rejoice and am glad.

Good night--