Sorry all! Hopefully you all have been better at practicing daily gratitude than I have been recently!
10. Grateful for a Possession: Does the coffee maker count because I'm grateful for that every single morning! I have a lot of things that I'm grateful for so I'm having trouble narrowing it down to 1 specific thing. I will say I am grateful for modern technologies that allow us to travel to see people who are far away, that allow us to talk to them on the phone or video chat to close distances, that allow us to connect with our loved ones always.
11. Gift from God: Grace! Grace from my community when I don't lead well as pastor; Grace from my family when I'm feeling like the hot-mess-mama and don't have everything all together; and Grace from God who forgives me of my sins and faults and reminds me that I can always pick myself up, step forward, and do better.
12. Advice: A professor from college who was wounded by organized religion always wanted to know why I was going to serve a church as a pastor. He challenged me and had me look at my thoughts and ideas from so many different points of view. But, my senior year of college as we were striking our last show, he gave me a great gift. Usually, everyone just ran to grab pizza after and sat and ate together. That show, Jer had everyone wait until I came out and said, "The pastor has to bless it." That amazing statement was Jer's seal of approval and his blessing on what I was choosing to do with my life. In 2012, Jer died suddenly so I decided to get a line from Hamlet tattooed on my foot. It was something that he always challenged me to remember, "This above all: to thine own self be true." It serves as a reminder that I need to stay grounded in who I am because that is who God called to ministry and to serve the church, not some idea of perfection of what I thought a pastor should be, but me. For that lesson, I will always be grateful.
13. A smell: Today I am grateful for the smell of cleaning supplies. Hang with me on this one! One luxury I allow myself to indulge in is having a wonderful lady come and clean the downstairs of the house. I am grateful for the smells of her cleaning supplies because it means that I focus on my tiny human and we can go do fun things together. To me, that is worth being grateful for every day of my life. So, thanks for the smell of cleaning supplies!
14. Life Lesson: "Nothing is impossible, the impossible just takes longer." My grandfather used to say this. If you set your mind to it, you can do it. I try and remind myself that (though I often fall short of actually doing it!) and pushing myself to find creative answers to problems I am encountering.