Day 11

Have you ever felt intimidated?  I have... as a matter of fact, I'm a bit intimidated with this whole blogging thing.  The Thankfulness Experiment is my first blog, and honestly, I don't have much experience following other blogs either.  I do have a few favorites that I check time to time... like Your Cup of Cake by Lizzie Early (I'm a sucker for cupcakes and I love to check out all her new recipes) and Your Homebased Mom by Leigh Anne Wilkes, but other than those two, I'm just learning as I go.  Here's links to their blogs in case you want to check them out: 
http://www.yourcupofcake.com/  and http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/.
So let me thank you in advance for partnering with me on my maiden blogging voyage! 

Now back to intimidation... last night before bed, I was journaling a prayer and let God know that I was feeling intimidated.  And taking note from the Brave Bible Study by Angela Thomas, I even posed it as a question in my head:  "God, do you know that I'm intimidated?"  And guess what?  God let me know that yes, indeed, He knew that I was intimidated.  How, you wonder?  When I got up this morning to read my Jesus Calling devotion by Sarah Young (which is absolutely amazing... I would highly recommend it!), the very first line for November 11th was: "Do not let any set of circumstances intimidate you.  The more challenging your day, the more of My Power I place at your disposal... Try to view challenging days as opportunities to receive more of My Power than usual.  Look to Me for all that you need, and watch to see what I will do..." (p. 330).  Wow!  It brought tears to my eyes... I'm so incredibly thankful that God knows how I'm feeling and also promises to equip me each day.  God is so good!  And that give me all the more reason "... to praise God's name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving." Psalm 69:30

Speaking of thanksgiving, this afternoon my hubby asked me if I saw our neighbor's tree.  When I told him no, he encouraged me to check it out and I was blown away.  The sky was filled with these incredibly unique scarlet leaves - and against the blue sky with the sun shining on it... it was stunning. Definitely something to be thankful for.  I thought, "I need to get a picture of that for the blog tonight."  When I went outside to take the picture a few hours later, I was disappointed because the sky was now gray and my picture did not capture the beauty of the tree at all.

 

I considered not including it tonight, since the picture didn't do the tree justice.  But God had something else in mind.  About an hour later, the setting sun lit up the tree again and I jumped at the chance to get another picture:

 

Beautiful, right?  Isn't it amazing how a little bit of sunshine changes the appearance of the tree?  A little bit of sunshine goes a long way in our own lives too.  I'm starting to view thankfulness as that little bit of sunshine that has the power to change the appearance of my situations.  For example, while I feel intimidated about blogging, I can change the appearance of it to "I'm thankful for being intimidated because that teaches me trust in God's strength , wisdom and power."  How's that for shining some sunshine on my intimidation?  I'm so thankful God revealed the power of changing the appearance of my situations through sunshine and my neighbor's tree. 

Tonight, I'm thankful for...

1.  The lesson God taught me through sunshine and my neighbor's tree
2.  The amazing bright orange Thankfulness Experiment t-shirts and the gal who designed the logo.  Check them out:

3.  Working with my son on his Extreme Dot-to-Dot puzzle.  What's this, you ask?  A dot-to-dot that breaks all the rules and has over 600 dots.  I'll share a picture when he completes it.
4.  Encouraging words from my hubby
5.  Blue Post-It notes decorating my house - courtesy of my 3 year old
6.  Watching AFV and laughing out loud with the boys before bed.  Nothing like ending the day with laughter and snuggles!

Here's to 10,000 reasons... only 8,656 more to go...