Thanksgiving is coming!

Growing up, the Fall time and Thanksgiving were my least favorite times of the year. I've always kinda been very uh. . .German and well. . . opinionated. I hated Piano. Don't know why but it depressed me. It was a lonely instrument. Not allowed in the Orchestra and if it was it ruined the happiness of orchestras to me. I didn't like the cockiness of Piano players either. (Although years later in Collage, Piano players became my best friends! Sorry Juls!) I'd get the same icky feeling around Basketball and Football. Cockiness oozed out of them and I despised any associations with it. Same with the color Red and Walmart, I didn't even want to be seen near these things. . . . so Fall being associated with Football, Red, and School time starting I guess it just made me not like Fall all that much. (Not that my family was into sports at all, so it shouldn't have been that big of a deal to me.) Then to make things worse there was Thanksgiving. The holiday picky eaters are sat down with a feast of odd foods (including a turkey that you could still see it's body shape!) in front of them and asked what they are thankful for. I really was a thankful kid for the most part, ok, ok, maybe not as thankful as I should have been, but I tried hard to recognize all God has done for me and knew even at a young age that I didn't deserve all that I had been blessed with. I loved the parade in the morning, but the big meal came around and it started a game of how little can I get away with eating. We'll I've been growing up thank goodness and my perspectives and and tastes have grown and are still growing, and slowly my negative opinionated-ness is starting to die. Although I still really hate the color red and I deep down think people who love red must be off their rockers just a tad bit.  And my heart still races before I enter a Wal-mart hoping no one will spot me in there! :o\ Slowly I've come to really truly enjoy Fall and Thanksgiving (Turkey and . . .well maybe not all. Not a fan of it's guts cooked into a gravy. But if you keep that away from me!) . And the more years added to my life the more things I recognize as a gift from God and am so grateful for all He has done for me and my family. I just finished going through Beth Moore's Bible study over James and at the beginning of the study she had us all write down a timeline of how God has worked in our hearts and lives. It was encouraging to do and I know I didn't even start to scratch the surface, but I thought I'd post some of the big bullet points as I remember tonight before Thanksgiving what all God has done for me.

God Working Through My Life
-Even before I was born, God set up a Godly Heritage for me to be born into.
-Born June 11th to a loving Father and Mother who loved God, each other, and my siblings and I.
-3 yrs. Salvation Realized early on my need for Christ in my life. (It was the day the Gulf War started actually, although I don't remember knowing that at the time.)
-Growing up in Grandpa's church services and learning more and more about God and the Bible. (I'm glad I wasn't thrown into a children's service. I feel like I learned a lot even at a young age just listening to Grandpa.)
-Awana Clubs gave me an early passion to win the lost for Christ and started my prayer life and Bible Memory.
-Baptism at 7. Outwardly acknowledging my salvation to others. Had a few times around this age of questioning my faith and God used that to grow me closer to Him. Started Daily Devotions around this time.
-Wilds Camp Mid school-High school. Learning to spend real quality personal time with God. Owning my personal convictions. Learning to ask forgiveness even when it was embarrassing. Seeing College age counselors I looked up to and wanting to serve God as they were. Desiring to live for God and not for flesh.
-12-14 yrs during major "awkward stage" with my glasses. Learning to pray each morning for hours. I had the wrong view of why I prayed for hours a little bit, but I was learning the self-discipline that would latter help me keep it up but with a better perspective on God's character.
-College at BJ. Dependence on God alone to get through life. Trusting Him for a husband if it was His will. Made wonderful friendships that would grow even after I left. Started to get excited for Heaven seeing how my friends and I who all had different convictions on certain things could all get along because we all loved God and agreed on the important things. I hated that people made so much fun of BJ for their strict rules. I felt like because they had such strict rules I could really break away from the worlds standards and decide what I thought on each of the issues. I'm really very grateful for my parents sending me to College even though it ended up I only stayed a year. It was a very valuable and life changing year.
-Meeting and Marrying Daniel. (I've decided I need to write our love story out someday!)
     -Going through Financial Peace together and learning I don't need everything the world says I do. Learning to be patient and wait to buy.
     -Going through Experiencing God together and learning "Don't just do something, sit there, wait, pray, and listen to God's calling first. Learning to listen to God. If I truly believe God knows everything, then why don't I go to Him more for help/advice.
     -Destroying legalism in my life. I tend to like legalism and feel safe with it. God has used Daniel to help me balance it all out.
   -Having Children. Destroying Selfishness in my life. Learning patience. Healing depression through filling my day with God. God is the best teacher on parenting. If we have a parenting question pray about it instead of just doing what everyone else does. God knows our children best and what they need.
-Growing in prayer. Learning God used my legalistic way of praying when I was younger to train me to pray today with perseverance. Learning to pray as God directs my heart. Learning I don't pray because I'm scared to not, but because I love God so much I want to experience and see Him working.
-Learning more that the Church is the body of believers. Not the Building. Owning my relationship and growth. We don't "go to chruch" We are the Church and bringing people to a building isn't what's important. It's making disciples, and keeping each other accountable and sharpening each other as we share how God is growing us. Sitting through a service shouldn't be what brings me contentment with my relationship with God.

So there is a rough outline of some of the "Spiritual Markers" in my life. I'm thankful for each of them and wish I had time to go into detail, but maybe through the years I can write more out on each, but now it's time to go make some Apple Pie!