Final Thankfulness Thursday Week 17--Thank You

Today is the final week of Thankfulness Thursdays where we meet up each week to share what we are thankful for from now until Thanksgiving.  You can write a simple list or focus on writing about one thing you are thankful for.  No rigid rules! 

Also feel free to use the above image in your blog post if you wish!

You can find out more information about the link up here.

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As Thankfulness Thursdays comes to an end, I am overwhelmed by thankfulness.  I was in the middle of putting away laundry, listening to some indie Christmas music on Pandora, and my heart was full thinking about the past few months of practicing thankfulness and seeing the result of this discipline.

My introverted, anti-social, hibernating tendencies have proven to put me in funks, caused me to be extremely judgmental, self-centered and often dissatisfied with life.  And what I have learned these past seventeen weeks is that I have control over this.  I can choose joy.

Today I am overwhelmed with joy.  The throat tightening-I want to cry-overwhelmed.  I am so thankful for a life, for relationships, and for a God that does not give up on me when I am blue. 

I am thankful for my husband who is constantly kind, hard working, and patient.  Brent has given me a life that has allowed me to live out my true and creative self.  Even when he is tired or doesn't get my perfectionist ways, he loves, supports, and honestly challenges me to live the life I was designed to live.

I am thankful for a season of renewed friendships.  I am thankful I took a risk by hosting craft day.  That time with friends has been so enriching.  This summer I got lonely and I am thankful that over the past few months I have made time for friends who are also willing to make time for me.  And I am specifically thankful for two friends who have been there for me, pursued me, and listened, when I was having so much trouble doing it myself.  Thank you Julia and Deb for showing me what true and authentic relationship is.

I am thankful for my parents who drop anything to do things for and to be with Brent and I.  They are forever constant and reliable.  I am thankful that as I get older I get to be their friend and not just their daughter.

I am thankful for this online place I have here.  I am thankful for bloggers who challenge deeper things than just pretty homes.  I am thankful for readers who encourage with kind words and take time out of their busy lives to get to know me.

I am thankful for focus.  That in 31 days I could refocus my home and heart back to a place where it needed to be.  I am thankful for a desire for simplicity.  A desire for less.  And as I slowly get there, I get a taste of freedom from stuff and chaos.

Thank you to those of you who read, linked up, and encouraged a heart of thankfulness during these Thankfulness Thursdays.  Week after week it was sometimes difficult to come up with something to write about.  But being right here in this moment and looking back, I am reminded that discipline is not easy but instead rewarding and life changing.  Thankfulness Thursdays has changed my heart.

// What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?