A friend on the front row...

I don't remember how long ago it started, that group of young boys that want to sit next to me, the pastor's wife, there on the front row, middle section, on Sunday mornings.

It started with one little guy, who wasn't very old at all when he asked to sit by me, 

and pretty soon it was a row full, all little boys and me.

Well, today the "ring leader" was out of town for a little league event, 

so there I was all alone without my "entourage". :)

I think it was sometime during the offering that a young single mama came up to me from the back of the church and asked if she could sit next to me.

Suddenly, I wasn't alone anymore, and neither was she.

I bet she didn't know that she blessed me by that one small act of courage, but she did.

 I'm thanking God, and I'm thanking her, too.

*****************

In 2012 I followed the prompts in Ann Voskamp's Joy Dare in counting my thanks.

In 2013 I'm going back to the way I did it in the beginning,

just noticing and recording the many extraordinary blessings in my ordinary life.

And so I continue to count my thanks

piling up gratitude day by day

in my little black journal.

(and capturing some of them via my camera or iPhone)

#3403-#3428

Thank you God for...

6-3-13-

-provision

-how the money miraculously stretches when we obey God 

-a fun afternoon with our friends from Missouri eating Thai food for lunch

-baby granddaughter falling asleep in my arms

-telling four year old granddaughter funny stories about when I was little

6-4-13-

-our new She Reads Truth devotional on 1st Peter

-Joyce Meyer's 70th birthday...thanking God for her, her books, her amazing testimony

-good doctors that we can email with questions or concerns

6-5-13-

-walking with my friend around our local fitness trail and a great visit over coffee afterwards

-dinner outside with the Hubs

-watching my grandson play ball

-beautiful evening sky and a great view of Mt. Hood crossing the bridge over the Columbia River

6-6-13-

-a beautiful morning-coffee and Cheerios out on the patio

-the first pink bloom on the rose bush

-prayer and worship

6-7-13-

-the best breakfast ever, (homemade french bread, smeared with a little olive oil, sprinkled with a little salt, oven toasted, then eaten with homemade strawberry jam...the perfect combination of salty and sweet and served with a fresh cup of hot coffee)

-Friday date day with the Hubs

-new sandals and sparkly orange toenail polish

6-8-13-

-sunrise and a cup of Starbucks as I drove a friend to the airport

-a deer walking down the four lane road like it's not even in the city

-an afternoon at home, cleaning and puttering

-a homerun by only grandson

-the Hubs making dinner on the grill

6-9-13-

-great worship

-the body ministering to a young man whose mother was killed in a car accident and other visitors

-a young mama sitting by me on the front row at church

gratefully yours,