Day 23

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas has officially arrived with Black Friday.  Crazy how at the stroke of midnight, the Christmas frenzy settles in as people do whatever it takes to get the great deals they scouted out on the Internet or in the newspaper ads.  Did any of you brave the Black Friday frenzy?  My mom and I did, however, it's not what you think.  We started our Black Friday shopping extravaganza about 10:45 AM.  Yep, we slept in, ate breakfast and took our time.  What did we miss?  Long lines, traffic jams, and lots of frustrated customers.  What did we get?  Everything on our list.  Isn't that amazing?  God was so good to us today!  We may have gotten the LAST of some items we were looking for, but we got them nonetheless.  We even got the special Bath & Body Works Bonus bag at 11:30 AM (which is amazing because the associate up front said they were out).  But they found one more box of the special bags right when we were checking out.  Pretty cool stuff! 

Believe it or not, my hubby decided a few years back that he was in... he was going to take the Black Friday plunge.  This was quite shocking to me because my hubby hates crowds AND long lines.  But he was determined to experience it once.  He got up before dawn, took a picture of the car clock, and drove to his destination. He got out of the car, saw the line, got back in the car and drove home.  With a final picture of the car clock when he arrived home less than an hour later, his Black Friday experience ended.  He got back in bed and caught some more zzz's. 

It's pretty incredible to think about what people go through to get those "good deals" on Black Friday.  Getting a good deal feels great and can be worth all the effort, especially if the recipient of the gift shows great delight after opening the present.  Doesn't it bring you so much joy to know that you gave someone the perfect gift? 

I think God experiences great delight when we take the time to thank Him for all the "good deals" He gives us each day.  The "good deals" He gives us are everywhere if we just take the time to notice. I'm noticing a lot more "good deals" from God since we started this experiment 23 days ago.  Are you? 

Zephaniah 3:17 says:  The Lord your God is with you.  He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.  God takes great delight in our thanksgiving.   Let's keep "...giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Ephesians 5:20

Today, I am thankful for...

1.  Prayers and snuggling that comforted my son after a bad dream
2.  Compassion of my son
3.  Gangman style dance re-enactment and the giggle fest that followed
4.  My three year old's great delight and mischievous laugh because he was wearing his favorite beach shirt for the third day in a row
5.  Black Friday shopping with my mom
6.  Thanksgiving leftovers at my parent's house - even yummy on day two!
7.  Cracking up over the mashed potato mishap... you've never seen flying butter like this!
8.  Fresh Balsam Candle making the house smell like Christmas - even though we don't have decorations up yet
9.  Steven Curtis Chapman's Joy CD
10.  My hubby sewing up my shirt for me - I'm one lucky gal!!

Here's to 10,000 reasons... Only  7,371 to go...