So, I wasn’t really sure what to write about this week. Carter challenged me to continue writing about our identity in Christ, but I really couldn’t figure much else out to write about on that front.

Recently, though, I’ve been reading a book lent to me by a friend by Thomas Traherne, called Centuries of Meditations. It’s a good read, though I can’t say I agree with everything in it (those who know me won’t find that surprising). I expect that Carter, actually, would like it more than I do.

Anyway, a lot of the book, so far, has been an argument for the appreciation of all that God has given us. Inspired by the listing exercise from last week, I decided that I would have us do a list exercise again this week. (Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to scrawl an obscenity across your list this time.) Let’s list what we have to be thankful to God for.

Like I did last time, I’m going to start us out, and you can take it from there.

I’m thankful for my life. It allows me to experience all the rest of the items on this list.

I’m thankful for Christ’s sacrificial atonement which provides me with a relationship with Him.

I’m thankful that this relationship with him gets to go on for eternity.

I’m thankful for the freedom, joy and abundance that I get to experience in this life because of my relationship with Him.

I’m thankful for my body. Have you ever thought about how you don’t notice a lot of your body until something acts up and starts hurting? I never really noticed my back until I hurt it in high school. Now, I’m thankful that it still works and that the chronic pain I have is minimal. Whenever I get more temporary injuries, it’s always nice the first day I wake up without pain from that injury, and so easy to be thankful! I thank God for making our bodies not just amazing, but so convenient that we don’t have to worry about them except when we really abuse them.

I thank God for nature’s beauty and provision. I’m a big fan of a guy named Hugh Ross and his Reasons to Believe ministry. One of the things they do is put out an ever-expanding list of ways in which the Earth, the solar system and the very nature of the universe were all fine-tuned by God so we could live here. I’m thankful that nature is so hospitable to us, and I’m thankful that it is both hospitable and beautiful at the same time. This next week, try to stop and notice the beauty of one or two plants, or a sunrise or sunset, or the beauty of waves, or a mountain, or a river, or… well, you get the idea.

I’m thankful that God made us with the capacity, indeed, the need, for meaningful, loving relationships. I’m thankful that God made us able to love others and to have the joy that is more blessed than that of receiving, that of giving. I’m thankful for families, that give me such a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see them working out as God planned.

I'm thankful for the plans God has for me, that Jesus came that I would have life, and life abundantly.

There, I think that's a good start.  Now, you can take it from there and add more that applies to your life personally.

The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
  For His compassions never fail. 
  They are new every morning;
  Great is Your faithfulness.

-Lamantations 3:22, 23 NASB