Well, it’s Easter weekend and along with reflecting on what an awesome Saviour I have in Jesus, I’m trying also to be more thankful to Him all the time. These weekend after all is not about chocolate, the Easter bunny wasn’t born, and doesn’t hide chocolate eggs for children to find. Easter is about remembering a man who lived a perfect life. A man who was also God. Who lived amoungst men, without sinning, and yet died on a cross. The most painful of all deaths. He was the sacrifice for all sin, so that by believing in Him we can know God and stand in His presence. But His death is made more awesome because He rises from the dead, and this we remember tomorrow. Greater than His miricle birth I think!
Yes, we stayed home on Friday and worked (mainly Pete) as a family on sorting out our back garden. It was beautiful, Josiah on my back while I raked out stones from the dirt. Grace “helping” too. And Pete doing all the hard work with concrete, sawing, wire cutting, weed pulling etc etc. It is a slow process, but we are getting there. I am thankful that we have a blank canvas to create our garden with, a big canvas. It’s exciting to plan and make!
Yes, today family visited and we had fun and went to the BMX track to join in with a big egg hunt round the track before anyone did any riding. The kids loved it, and found plenty of chocolate too. And yes, we have more Easter eggs to give the kids tomorrow. I am thankful that I have such a wonderful family who give us gifts, and buy us chocolate! I love chocolate 🙂
Right now in this moment I am thankful for a lot of things. I’m half way through reading one thousand gifts by Ann Voskamp. It’s a dare to live fully right where you are. She starts a journal writing down 1000 gifts from God. She counts each one. And then… She keeps going and forgets the numbers. So before I actually start my own journal of thanks to God for His gifts to me, I’m trying to be thankful in my head.
I am thankful that
- I know God
- I have a wonderful husband
- I have 2 beautiful children
- We are all well
- We have our own house
- We have awesome extended family
- We have a fantastic supportive church
- We have so many friends who help and support us
- We have bicycles!!
- And you know, I am thankful that my 4 year old knows that Easter isn’t about the Easter bunny, but about Jesus. She shudders when you read her a crucifixion story – even a kids one- but that’s good. It is not nice what happens to Jesus. But tomorrow we will go to church and celebrate that Jesus is alive. And we will eat chocolate eggs as a sign of the new life that we have by believing in Jesus.
Last week, we stood before our church and thanked God for Josiah. And we dedicated ourselves to raising him to learn about God. We hope that one day he too will decided to follow God with all his heart. We ate food with friends and family. And we had a special cake to mark the occasion. Next week, he will be one! And we will mark that occasion with cake too. I am thankful that God has trusted us with children. I will try to do my best. But I will make a mess of things, I thank God that I can learn from my mistakes and hopefully improve!
We’ve had a tough time lately, last week suffering with a d&v bug which worked its way through all four of us. It took Grace a week and a half to eat properly again. I am thankful that we are past it now, and that Grandad was able to help on the day Pete and I were worst hit. It’s also been hard with Josiah not eating much solid food and waking in the night for mummy milk feeds to keep him going. I am thankful that mostly he goes straight back to sleep, and that I can feed him this way. This last week I can finally say he is eating more. I am not certain he is having less milk from me yet, but he has slept longer some nights. All steps in the right direction. And I am thankful for that.
So I am trying to be thankful to God all the time. All. The. Time. Thankful. I will keep you posted…