Counting Down by Counting Up

Happy November! It's hard to believe we're already beginning the holiday months, but I think November is turning into one of my favorite writing months. Last year I took a friend's advice and posted something for which Nate and I were thankful each day from Nov. 1 until Thanksgiving Day. (If you're interested/bored, you can read those posts here.)  After reading this book recently, I'm taking steps to make gratitude a more intentional part of my life, so I'm going to again count down the days until Thanksgiving by counting up my days' blessings! Will you join me? I'd love to have you leave comments about what you're thankful for or write posts of your own if you're a blogger! Here we go!

The View from Our Balcony Tonight

1. Stillness

I work with with kids everyday. 200 of them. Nothing about my job is quiet, and I'm generally ok with that. I love loving these kids loud. But tonight I'm home alone in our apartment and everything is still. No music, no washing machine, nothing. And I'm soaking it in.

You may remember that stillness and I aren't always on the best of terms. There are definitely times I still fight it with the same stubborn vigor I see in my niece when she has to eat meat instead of her beloved fruit. But in the last year I've learned a lot about how much I need the stillness, how we are created to need it.

So despite the crazy volume in my life, the full schedules, the hundred things I'm behind on, I'm thankful God gives us moments of stillness. The sunset tonight was beautiful. And as always, silent. It slips by so quickly, changing by the minutes. There is nothing yelling, "Hey, I'm a beautiful reminder of God's creation! You should pay attention now!"

Instead it coyly calls for your eyes. It waits for you to be still and see. He waits for us to be still and know. How beautiful.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live

your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith

as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Colossians 2:6-7