30 Thankful Days #14: My God Box

Ah Ha!!!! I've kept up, even if it's only for one day, on 30 Thankful Days! As thanksgiving approaches I'm linking up with Dawn over at theGoodlife and celebrating the little things each day that I am thankful for. I encourage you to join in because you'll realize that the little things you are thankful for are the things that make life enjoyable and worth living!

Day 14:
I'm thankful for my new "God Box" (thanks Molly for the idea) and sorry ahead of time for the poor picture quality. I had to use my computers camera!... Like I've mentioned in previous posts, I've had a ton on my mind lately and can't seem to escape the whirlwind of thoughts. I'm a visual kind of person and I needed a visual representation of me casting my anxieties on him (1 Peter 5:7). I wanted to just see what it was like to just "give it to God and then be done worrying about it" because there is nothing Godly about worry and fear... My friend was telling me that when she had a lot on her mind she would write it out on a small piece of paper and then put it in a jar that she had painted black. Once the thought was in the jar, all the anxiety and concerns that accompanied the thought were gone too. It was her way of letting go of her fears and choosing to trust God. So I bought a a small storage type box, covered the inside with black felt, and cut a hole in the top. I like to call it my God Box. It sits on the shelf next to my bed and I put a sharpie and some sticky notes next to it so not even laziness can keep me from turning my thoughts over to God.

top (my attempt at showing the hole for the paper thoughts)

Where it sits on my shelf with the sticky notes and sharpie :)
It's actually quite big and more cube like, though neither
picture shows it that way.

30 Thankful Days #12 and #13:

I'm going short and sweet today as I link up with 30 Thankful Days.

Day #12

I'm thankful that I have a car... I know it's kind of a lame thing to be thankful for but yesterday I really needed to get out of the house and because I have a car I grabbed my keys and drove off. I headed down to the river and just sat (in my car because it was freezing) and tried to clear my head. I was all bundled up and had the heater on as I just watched the river flow by. Because of my car, I'm able to just pick up and go and I LOVE it. I don't need to ask permission or have a destination in mind (which is how I ended up at the river) I just need to be able to find the keys :)

The view from my car... I took this pic a few weeks back at the same river (it's less colorful now)

Day #13

Today I'm thankful for church. I haven't been to a whole service in a while because of soccer and today I was blessed to be back. With my newly covered journal and Bible in my lap and a few friends at my side I felt at home. I'm so thankful for my church family both here in Wyoming and back in Colorado. I know it's cliche to say this but I'm going to anyway... I don't know what I'd do without them :)

30 Thankful Days #10 and #11: Naps and Heroes

I couldn't be more excited to link up with Dawn over at theGoodlife and join her in 30 Thankful Days. It's simple! Everyday (or every other day if you're me) you think of something you're thankful for and write about it so that other people can give thanks too.

Day 8: Naps
Yesterday was one of those days where there were definitely things to get done and places to go but I just couldn't work myself up to care about them. If you know me this is actually a good thing because for the last few weeks I've been overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety and worry most of which comes from freaking out about simple day-to-day activities. But yesterday, it was like my brain took a day off and decided to stop worrying and just go. Go to class, go to physical therapy for my foot, NAP, go to lab, and finish the day off with some great friends. Though I am so thankful for the slower pace my mind functioned at yesterday, the thing I am the most thankful for was my nap. TWO HOURS of sleepy time in the middle of the day. I felt rested and revived! (And I bet I would have been exhausted by the time lab and friend time came around had I not caught some Z's earlier in the day)

Day 9: My Dad
Today I am thankful for all the men and women that serve our country. I know first hand the sacrifices that the service men and women, as well as their families, have to make and it's not easy. Their lives dedicated to others will never go unnoticed by me and I pray today especially for the ones serving overseas and that they may return safely to their families.

But today I want to recognize one veteran in particular... My dad.

At his retirement ceremony

He joined the Air Force at 18yo and served for twenty years before retiring. He soared through the ranks, while attending college and providing for a family. Though he and our family had to put up with moves, TDY's (where he'd leave for days or even months and we never got to see him), and the rest of military life, he never complained. He never took a day off (not one... he had over 3 months of PTO saved up when he retired) and he was alway home in time for dinner and soccer practice if he was in town. I can't even explain how much I love this man and how proud I am to be his daughter. 

What's not to love about a man in uniform!

30 Thankful Days #8 and #9: Art and Flexibility

So I've realized that I've been doing 30 Thankful Days every other day and just doing two days in one post. Maybe I should call it 15 Thankful Days...Just a thought... If you didn't catch any of that let me fill you in. I'm linking up with Dawn over at theGoodlife and making an effort to post one thing I'm thankful for each day of the month. It's incredible because I find myself thinking throughout the day, "hey, this could be what I'm thankful for today." and it happens so regularly that by the time I sit down to write, I don't know which to choose for that day (not wanting to imply that I'm not thankful about the other things I didn't choose). Anyways...

I used some old scrap booking paper, magazine cutouts, stickers, ribbon, and then covered it all with contact paper for a smooth finish.

For day 8 I'm thankful for being blessed with a creative and artistic mind. You see, I hadn't been journalling lately but I was trying to get back into a routine with it. I had this new journal type book that my dad gave me from work and though I liked how the pages on the inside were set up (amazing how something little like having the spot for the date made me like the journal) the outside was this plain navy blue with NO words or decorations. I guess I should've expected that since my dad is a military businessman kind of guy. So I decided it would be fun to decorate the cover and hopefully the personalization of the journal would tempt me to write more... it was worth a shot. I finally got around to decorating it. YAY!!!! I now love my journal and can't wait to keep writing in it but I'm just so thankful that I can transfer the creative ideas in my head to paper. It's weird for me to think that some people can't do this so I'm just really thankful that I can and that I can get joy out of some simple arts and craft projects.

AND today I am extremely thankful for flexible professors. I asked for an extension on a paper because I was gone all last week for soccer and my english professors was more than happy to help me out. She didn't give me a specific date and just said that I could turn it in whenever I finished it. However, even with the extension I was struggling to get through the assignment due to how complicated (and uninteresting) the prompt was. Now that I'm about two weeks past the due date I decided to meet with the teacher and hopefully get some suggestions. BUT instead of suggestions my professor just told me to write about something completely different and unrelated to the previous assignment because 1) she was tired of grading the assignment and 2) the students didn't grasp the assignment's purpose anyways. On top of getting a new prompt she also gave the entire class an extension on the next papers and gave me freedom to make up my own extra credit assignments. Gotta love cool professors that work with people and I am so THANKFUL!!