Special Edition: Thanksgiving Greetings

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I hope it is a wonderful day of happiness and thanks! I'm going to share some of the things I am thankful for.

•  My family. 
• My uncle being home
• My house and all the things that make it livable.
• My education. So many people do not get the chance to learn about what they love.
• The clothes I have.
• A car to get around in.
• My friends. Especially my partner in crime, my Anna to my Elsa, the girl who is always there for me, my travel buddy. Courtney.
• I'm thankful for different seasons.
• I'm most of all thankful for the God I serve and the fact that He loves me!

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
   Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs. 
Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name. 

 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100 (NIV)

Highlights of November

"I Consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." ~Romans 8:18 (NIV)
 Wow! Can this really be the last day of November already? This month has gone by so fast and for me personally it has been a month of growth. I want to first start by finishing up my THANKFUL NOVEMBER
Day24: I am thankful for all of my family being together.
Day 25: I am thankful for God giving me the strength to chose purity.
Day 26: I am thankful that I live somewhere where I can continue my education.
Day 27: I am thankful for my health.
Day 28: I am thankful for another day to give thanks.
Day 29: I am thankful that I am saved by grace and that God loved me enough to die for me.
Day 30: I am thankful to be alive right now!
  Now for the November milestones. The very first day of November at 6:30 AM a beautiful baby girl was born. No she isn't mine but she is truly a gift from God and an answer to my prayers for her daddy! On November third I was blessed with the chance to celebrate another birthday with my Nana. The next day on November fourth a twelve year dream came true and I got to go with my daddy and see WWE Raw live!!!
  This whole month I have been going to a different church and meeting more teens that I can be friends with who will help me grow in my walk with God. This month was also the first month in nine months that I was not dating anyone and had more time for friends, family, and most importantly God. I also became very dedicated about finishing my book on Figment called "The Girl with the Blue Mask". It is still being written but I will finish this story!
  God has also opened my eyes to the importance of letting Him guide me all the way. Especially when it comes to relationships. He is teaching me to be patient and He has opened my mind to ways to make dating even more godly and less worldly.
  Finally, tonight I found out about the unfortunate death of Paul Walker. I loved him as Brian in the Fast and Furious movies and my heart and prayers goes out to his family and friends and all of his fans. It is a tragedy to lose someone so talented and young.

  I do not want to leave this blog post on a sad note so I will leave it with this: "God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.: ~C.S. Lewis. God is in control of all things!

Some more things I am Thankful for!

                                                                   Thankful November continued:
Day 17: I am thankful for having hope.

Day 18: I am thankful for plenty of healthy food.

Day 19: I am thankful for God preparing my heart.

Day 20: I am thankful for getting to spend a lot of time with my cousins.

Day 21: I am thankful for Disney movies that show hope and love.

Day 22: I am thankful for God never leaving me!

My family is going through a pretty big storm right now. We have a couple of deaths in the family and plenty of heartbreak. But even through all of this I will be thankful and praise God!
"weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5 (NIV)

The Gift of Giving

   So today my two cousins and I packed Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. This is what Operation Christmas Child, or OCC, is: it is an organization where you pack a shoe box, or clear food storage box full of things for kids in third world countries who might not get a Christmas gift. This box can be filled with a number of things such as: washcloth, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, pencils, sharpeners, erasers, pens, notebooks, coloring books, crayons, hair bows, combs, socks, shirts, hats, hard candy, gum, sunglasses, a personal letter from you, and of course toys.
  Some toys can be Slinky's, yoyos, cars, jump-ropes, stuffed animals, anything girls would like to play with, and anything boys would like to play with that will fit into a box. Just no toy swords, knifes, fake guns, or army men because these boxes could be going over to war areas. The ages for the children are 2-4, 5-9, 10-14. After you pack your shoe box you drop it off at a drop off location during National Drop Off Week. From there the boxes go to the OCC headquarters closes to you. At the headquarters volunteers go through all the boxes collected to make sure everything can go overseas. Then the boxes are taken to their destinations.
   As the boxes are being handed out volunteers teach sort of like a vacation Bible school to the kids and they learn about God. Some of these kids have never heard about God until they get a shoe box! There is still time to do a shoe box if you want to. Here is the link with all the information in it. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

  This year my cousins and I did eight boxes. Now I have done a box since I was in first grade (I went to a privet school my whole life.) but for my nine-year-old and three-year-old cousins this was their first time doing a box. They loved it and I do believe we have started a new family tradition. What a blessing today was. Here are some pictures:

Have you packed a shoe box? Leave a comment and let me know.
THANKFUL NOVEMBER CONTINUED:
Day 15: I am thankful for Christian Bookstores
Day 16: I am thankful for OCC and my cousins wanting to help with boxes.

A Divine Intervention

  So I know it's only been a couple of hours since I posted last, but when God is at work how can I not praise Him for that?
Now today Moma and I were in a store and my mom started talking to this lady about clothes. The conversation turned to where to get baby clothes. Now there must be something about babies and God because after that conversation my mom got on her "Jesus Kick" (She starts talking about God and you can hear the passion for our Savior as she talks) as I call it.
  Soon this sweet lady started sharing some things that has happened in her family that it was obvious that God had been at work in. Soon I found myself standing there with tears falling down my face silently praising God for how wonderful He is and praising Him for being with a sister in Christ like He has been. 
  I've been saved for about six years now and I've never had a moment when I have the chance to stand in a public  place and rejoicing with them. It was a wonderful feeling and I felt like I had known this woman my whole life while we were talking about God and it made me realize I will know her forever when we get to Heaven one day!
  When I got home I thought about the days events while I was writing in my journal tonight. I realized that what happened tonight had to go along with what I am thankful for today. I am thankful for God putting me in this world to do His work. Today I did a part of His work by fellow-shipping with a fellow Christian! I would call today a Divine Intervention.
   Divine Intervention: God making something happen that is considered something only God could do in an every day situation.
  THANKFUL NOVEMBER CONTINUED:
Day 14: I am thankful God put me on this world to do His work.

Joy Unspeakable

   This post is early, but so many God-things (Things that happen & you know that it could only have been God's doing) has happened to me this week! First, on Sunday I went to church with my grandmother and the preacher preached on the book of Ruth. Now Ruth is one of my favorite books in the Bible and the book I am doing a Bible study on!
    Sunday night I was back at church and there was this guy about my age was there who wasn't there that morning. Now why this is important is because I am suppose to meet this guy this Sunday at another church! It turns out that he was there with his cousins. The preacher preached on having a God-given reputation and at the end of the service he just randomly started talking about how young adults who were single should be praying for their future spouses!
On Wednesday I went to church with my grandmother again and the guy from Sunday night was back. But the wonderful thing that happened is that a sixteen-year-old young man got up and preached the sermon and his passion for God was so encouraging!!  
I have  found so many fellow Christians close to my age on Twitter and their tweets have been so encouraging over the past couple of days!
God put these tweets, like this one from Christian Girls (@christiangirls_) "God's love is the best accessory a girl could wear." From To My Future Husband (@ToMyFutureHus) "#DearFutureHusband Thank you for making me believe in love again." There are many, many, many more too.
Between these tweets and the sixteen-year-old who preached tonight at church God has saved the fire that burns in me for Him. Now it is burning bright again instead of being little sparks! He knew just what I needed to be close to Him again and I just want to praise Him for that! God thank You for loving me so much and being with me through everything! Amen!

THANKFUL NOVEMBER CONTINUED:
Day 10: I am thankful for Church

Day 11: I am thankful for Music 

Day 12: I am thankful for a warm house

Day 13: I am thankful for coffee 

I want to leave this post with this song that gave this post its title:

 

Thankful November

So I'm a little late on this, but I had an idea this morning. I am going to celebrate Thankful November (Yes, this is something I made up.) This is how I'm going to celebrate it. Everyday on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterset I am going to post something I am thankful for. This is just a way to be very thankful this Thanksgiving and to start a habit of be thankful everyday!
We should be thankful everyday. But unfortunately we are not. I learned in my ACA class (Study Skills) That    if you practice something for 32 days it becomes a habit. So let's see what happens in 30 days.

Day 1: I am thankful for my car because it gets me where I need to be safely

Day 2: I am thankful for doctors, police, firefighters, people who keep us safe

Day 3: I am thankful for paved roads cause it would be quite scary to drive on roads like in some countries

Day 4: I am thankful for spending time with family and having fun

Day 5: I am thankful for living in the country

Day 6: I am thankful for seasons such as summer, fall, winter, and spring

Day 7: I am thankful for technology I have so many writing tools at my fingertips (EX: this blog)

Day 8: I am thankful for heartbreak It shows us we have feelings, draws us closer to God, and shows us how to treat others

Day 9: I am thankful for my two best friends who have been there through everything. They are more than friends, they are my sisters (by heart.)

So... what are you thankful for?