Thanksgiving

Friends, Happy Thanksgiving!
I know that I myself can think of over 100 things I am thankful for, so today let's sit and dwell on the blessings that the Lord has lavished upon us.

One thing I am thankful for is friendship! I spent my Thanksgiving with my best friend :)

I love this girl.

creaky bridge, I really though it was going to break

being kids again and swinging

my hometown has quite a bit of historic areas.

swing set I use to play on as a kid.

boots and fedora

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Who am I, but Yours.

Who am I, that you would care about me?
Who are you, but Mercy to pardon me.
Prone I am to forget, the blessings you continually bring.
So undeserving, unworthy, to be graced by thee.
Still you care and still you love.
You give new mercies everyday, as if I give enough.

Who are you?
Oh Lord, who am I?
But Yours, only Yours.

It's inevitable, I feel it.

It's inevitable, I feel it.
They shift, sway, and flow, never ceasing.
Feeling, emotion, wreckage, it tends to stay.
An infinite abyss that wraps me in strings, tending to hold too tightly.
It has encompassed me before, yet it pursues me.
Like the wind, it passes, dancing around the leaves and autumn air.

It's inevitable, I feel it.
I chose this, not redemption, but capture.
But salvation persists, lovingly taking hold, I am now a slave.
Not a prisoner of death, but of life.

It's inevitable, I feel it.
I am free. I am His.

Romans 16:17-18 :: Galatians 5:1

dear beloved, remember.

Failure.

A word I am all too familiar with. My failure tends to make itself known, even though I try to keep it in hiding. It digs deep, tending to bury itself into my thoughts until I willingly recognize it. Failure, sin, my disobedience, all in the same.

As I sit here spending an overwhelmingly amount of time just contemplating on how much I fail everyday, the spirit shifts my thinking to Jesus.

Jesus.

The Lord who has lived a perfect life and died an undeserving death. Jesus, who has risen in glory and the same Jesus that is coming back in all of His righteousness. That Jesus, loves me. The one who fails and fails constantly.

 I understand that truth, my mind may grasp the concept, but my heart is dubious. A holy, righteous God loves a sinner, undeserving and unworthy. Do we ever just stop to think about that? How unbelievably absurd yet beautiful that is? I am prone to forget.

In my heart, my doubts are ever before me. I lack in loving Jesus on a daily basis, but His love for me is never lacking. I need a reminder to live in light of this. Even with all of the instability in my heart, this I know, Jesus loves me. I am humbled and astonished at this truth.

This is who I am because Jesus loves me. I am viewed as righteous in Christ, no longer a slave of sin, but a slave of righteousness(Romans 6:17-18). I am looked upon as if I have never sinned, yet live perfectly as Jesus lived. I am  holy and blameless in the eyes of Christ(Colossians 1:22). I am His beloved and it is all for His glory. I am loved, so that I too can love (1 John 4:19).

The depths and heights of His love is something I shall never fully comprehend. But as He continually reveals more of himself to me, I continually become more in love with Him. This is a pattern that I welcome in expectancy, a pattern my heart yearns to know.