Five Praises

1.  FRIENDS-I seriously have the most amazing friends ever.  I often will think of them throughout the day and just smile. Oh how I could go on and on about them...but, I will just say that I cannot imagine my life without them.  They are true blessings!

2.  CHURCH-I have been a member of 4 different churches in my lifetime and have found all of them to be SO different even though they have all been Lutheran churches.  This of course means that I have had MANY pastors as well.  Just as a teacher in a classroom can "make or break" a good portion of a child's experience in school, I believe it is the same for a pastor in a church.  During my teen years, I was blessed with Pastors Mary and Gary.  They were young and married and brought such life to our church.  For the first time ever, I couldn't wait to go!  Thankfully, it is the same for me now at my current church.  Pastor John never ceases to amaze my husband and me.  We truly leave church feeling inspired, motivated, and thankful.  I am mostly just so thankful that Ian has been able to be part of this church family (as he just came out of his room playing his guitar--wonder where he learned about that?).  He used to scream when we had to leave church--he knew it was good even at the tender age of 2.  :) 

3.  PATIENCE-I find it very odd that one of my best characteristics as a classroom teacher is patience; yet I find myself asking for God to help me with that when it comes to anything outside of the classroom.   At any rate, I do believe that my patience for those things that are out of my control is improving.  Perhaps it is because God keeps placing those situations in my life to test me. 

4.  COOKING-I love, love, love to cook.  I have so many recipe books and find myself looking up new recipes all of the time.  I am thankful that I was given the talent and interest to do so.  It is been an extra blessing as we are trying to cut down on our spending.  I never thought I would be baking my own buns, making my own softened butter, taco seasoning, syrup, etc.  Cooking is a great escape for me as well.

5.  FAMILY-I know I have shared them before in my 5 praises; but they are worth repeating.  :)  I have so many loving family members (including those that live with me of course).  Neither Chris or I grew up with a lavish lifestyle (quite the opposite actually), but we knew we were loved, we learned how to work hard and value what we have, and that's the kind of "rich" that is for me.