Day of Thanks, 01.25.09

This week, I am thankful for:

1. Going home: I got to go home for a couple of days this week to see my folks. It was really nice. I got to relax a good bit (never really left the house except to play golf with my dad) and spend some quality time with my family. I don't get to go home too much, and when I do it's always a short trip, so I enjoy any chance I get to go. I love my family and am very thankful for them. Thank you, God, for my family. Thank you for getting me home and back again safely. Thanks for the time spent with my parents and my sister, and thank you for giving me such a great family.

2. Preaching: I got to preach in our evening service tonight for our youth-led service. I teach Sunday School and our Wednesday night youth Bible studies, but I still always enjoy getting to preach in a congregational setting. Tonight, I preached on Jonah and some lessons that we can all learn relating to how we treat the Gospel today. Thank you, God, for the opportunity to preach. Thank you for calling me to ministry, and thank you for filling my heart with your words. Please help me to be a good steward of the gifts that you've given me, and may I always continue to preach the Word in season and out of season.

3. Life: As many of you read about on Thursday, I witnessed a pretty bad incident that day involving the death of a 19 year old college student. Ever since then, I have been very thankful for the fact that God has blessed me with life. I am able to live, breathe, and most importantly have a relationship with God and people. He has allowed me to live and serve him for 23 years, and not everyone has that chance. Thank you, God, for giving me life. Thank you for creating me, for forming me, and for sustaining me. Thank you for knowing exactly how many days I will live and for keeping me for every single one of them. Thank you for your love and for the opportunity to experience a relationship with you.

4. Missions Opportunities: I've had a few missions opportunities present themselves to me over the past few weeks. I'm not really going to delve into a lot of details right now, but I'm thankful that God is opening up some doors to allow me to spread the Gospel to all nations. I'll fill you in more on details as I find them out. Thank you, God, for opening up my eyes to the need to serve you around the world. Thank you for giving me opportunities to take your Word to other nations. Please continue to open doors that you want me to go through, and give me wisdom as I make decisions as to where I will go.

5. Conclave: At the end of this next week, I will be going to Conclave, an annual youth ministers conference in Atlanta. I'm really excited about the opportunity for training, networking, and corporate worship amongst some of my minister peers. Plus, it will be an opportunity to see the Dresdows for a little while (they are being generous enough to allow me to stay with them for a couple of days so that I don't have to stay at a hotel!). Thank you, God, for Conclave. Thank you for allowing me to go to the conference this week. Thank you for the chance to meet some fellow youth ministers, to learn more about ministry, and to fellowship and worship with people from around the state.

Thank you, God, for these blessings, both significant and trivial. You are God, and you are good.