and be thankful

Yesterday I woke up wanting a hair cut (maybe a few inches) and went to bed with about 8 inches missing off my head. Definitely a language barrier or something between me and the stylist. I've come to realize that you need to prepare yourself for something like that. Like maybe go out and buy a bunch of wool scarves or turtle necks? It's kinda silly how little things like that can shake you. I spent all day trying not to look at photos of myself with my long hair because it just hurt too much. I never realized how much I took it for granted.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. I really am thankful for a lot of things, but today I'm determined to be thankful for things that I won't even realize I'm thankful for until tomorrow. Like my hair. I'm ever so grateful for my job, my amazing clients, my friends, my family, and on and on. But, I think I skip over a lot of "today" things in just being thankful for those.

So, today I'm thankful for two ears to hear the Iron and Wine album slowly waking me up. I'm thankful for my pastel blue grandma style slippers that I've complained about a lot the past few weeks but if I woke up tomorrow without them my toes would be very unhappy. I'm thankful for the "Happy Thanksgiving!" group text messages from my friends as I sit writing this. I've complained a lot about group text messages in the past, but if I think about it reminds me of all the awesome friends I have and I should be more grateful for them.

My all-time favorite Bible verse is very applicable today. It says, "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. " (Colossians 3:15-16)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, Come, Let Us Adore Him!

dear readers,

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas never gets old for me. I'm pretty sure I said "I love Christmas!" with a little sigh of happiness more than ten times yesterday. People have told me that I'll lose my excitement for Christmas as I get older, but honestly I don't see it happening any time soon. :) I love that in a busy world filled with people focused on themselves and their tasks, we can lay that all aside and take one day to slow down and focus on each other and most importantly focus on Jesus, the true meaning of Christmas. I love thinking about Heaven and what they do on Christmas - whether they celebrate with us or whether every day in Heaven is like Christmas. Seriously, just think about that. If Christmas is "heaven on earth" for me here, just imagine what Christmas would be like IN Heaven! Woow!

A friend asked me this recently what my favorite Christmas carol was. I think I told her O Holy Night, but since then I've realized that wasn't true. Last night as my church's Christmas Eve service I stood on stage I sang the lyrics to Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful and was floored. "Oh, come, let us adore him!" Not, oh come let us clap to him, come let us thank him, or even come let us praise him. It says ADORE. I want to adore Jesus. I want to flat out love and honor him more every Christmas. Jesus wasn't just a baby, he was my Savior, he IS my Savior.

Come, let us adore him!

With love,
Lydia Jane