When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?
– G.K. Chesterton
After seeing my amazing sister list one reason she’s thankful each day leading up to Thanksgiving on Facebook, I upped the proverbial ante. After discussing whether or not we’re truly grateful people, I challenged the men and women in my homegroup, including myself, to list 100 reasons that they’re thankful. I shared this challenge with those I work with, and my boss took up the challenge, even sharing his list with the world via FaithVillage.
Here’s my list, which was both challenging to complete, yet could have kept growing. These are in no particular order, and some specific reasons fall under some of the general reasons.
- Jesus
- Grace
- Breath / Health / Food and Water
- Family: Each of them deserves a separate post on the 100 reasons I’m grateful for that particular family member.
- Girlfriend: She deserves major points for putting up with this turkey.
- Homegroup: They accepted me when I moved to DFW and still haven’t kicked me out.
- Bible
- Ability to read and write
- iPhone / MacBook / Apple products
- A warm sun on a cold morning
- Texas
- Dr. Pepper
- Drums
- Books
- Stories
- Job
- A roof over my head
- Oh The Places I’ve Been: Lorena, Georgetown, Austin, DFW, Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Washington D.C., Morocco, England, France, Mexico, Jamaica
- The opportunity and ability to travel
- Music
- Completing a difficult task / Doing something I never thought I’d be able to do
- Animals, more specifically the dogs I’ve had
- Quiet and solitude
- Acceptance
- Gratitude
- Honest conversation: Talks that have no pretense
- Constant spiritual work in my life, a.k.a. the relentless pursuit of Christ on my heart
- Rain and its colder-though-less-observed-in-Texas counterpart snow.
- Growing up in a small town, going to a small University
- College friends / Terranova friends
- The churches I’ve attended
- Friends and co-workers from those churches
- The homes that have been opened to me over many years
- The cleansing of crying, the hope for tomorrow
- Basketball
- Art / Graphic Design
- Medicine / Hospitals / Doctors
- Mountains
- Computers / Technology
- Childhood
- Youth Group
- Restaurants / Food
- Sleep
- Prayer
- Trials, but only ever in retrospect
- Time, especially when it’s not pressing
- Words
- Humor
- WordPress
- Concerts
- My Band
- Musicians I know
- Roland V-Pros
- Video games
- Golf and TopGolf
- Color, particularly green or blue
- Hot Showers
- A non-existent commute
- The people I work with
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Monty Python
- Chocolate
- Sushi
- The Dallas Mavericks
- The closeness of my extended family
- America, and the freedom to worship and to speak
- Those who fight for those freedoms
- The Internet
- Twitter and Facebook
- High school and college
- Paisano’s calzones
- Wired Magazine
- Authors
- Weekly weekend breakfast with the home group guys
- Perfect weather days
- Friday Night Lights
- Breaking Bad
- LOST
- The Count of Monte Cristo / A Tale of Two Cities
- FaithVillage.com
- Feta cheese
- The jobs I’ve had (Alaskan graveyard-shift grocery store stocker, Senate proofreader, Bookstore inventory keeper, Church comm director, Law firm copywriter)
- Trying new restaurants
- Christmas and Easter, minus all the external hoopla
- Birthdays, both mine and others
- My nieces’ and nephew’s laughter
- Questions without answers
- Unexpected presents
- Affection
- Access: to music, movies, books, news, the world
- Timeliness
- The English language
- Sunlight streaming through the clouds
- Photography
- Sleeping in
- Childhood
- John Howland, an ancestor who fell off the Mayflower then “managed to grab a topsail halyard that was trailing in the water and was hauled back aboard safely.” Think about that, then think about the moment in Back to the Future where Marty’s family starts to disappear from the picture.
- Those who listen more than speak
- Good grades
- Completing lists