Thankful

Now that it is November and the month of Thanksgiving is upon us, I think it time to join others in expressing my thankfulness. 

"Be joyful always, pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I Thessalonians 5:16-18 

This one of my favorite passages and tells us to give thanks in all things. It's easy to be thankful when things are going beautifully, but to be give thanks for even the crummy days, this I need to work on. I've come to realize it's really all about perspective. Many times we think we have it bad, yet honestly, we are living the dream.

Today I'm substitute teaching in my alma mater, Chapman Middle School. I don't know very many of the students, yet some of them take me back to the past when I knew them when they were small children. I don't know very many of the teachers anymore either as most of my teachers have retired or moved on to other things. I also am not familiar with this school because it's brand new, clean and shiny, and definitely not the CMS I ran around in. But I'm super thankful to be here. I'm thankful that I have a flexible part-time real job that allows me to do random substitute teaching jobs on Friday. I'm thankful that I live close to my hometown, so I can get out my green clothing on Fridays and fit right in with the other teachers. I'm also thankful that these students in general are really good kids. There has only been one student that had really bad breath that continued to stand close to me and tell me stories about video games. He seemed disappointed when I told him I didn't believe in video games nor thought that him telling me about his newest game was very educational. I tried really hard though to listen, knowing that this was the social outcast student and most people simply ignored him. 

I'm thankful today for the beautiful sunshine that is shining in the windows. They have really great natural light in this building and I'm thankful to be here.

What are you thankful for?