Ferris Bueller And My One Thousand Gifts

In the words of the great Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." In an effort to express my gratitude for the many blessings God has given me, I've started writing down one thousand things I'm thankful for.
I'm embarrassed to admit, it's harder than I thought. Let's face it, I live a pretty good life. But somehow I've allowed a season of minor illnesses in our family and the mundane tasks of daily living and raising the littles to derail my progress. While my word for the year is 'forward', it seems God intended for me to spend a few minutes looking backward.

Last weekend, I spent a few minutes in a place that was once very familiar to me. As I stopped and marveled at all the ways the riverfront had changed, tears began to fall. Thirteen years ago, my life in this little southern city took an unexpected turn. Some might call it a curve ball. At the time I was devastated because things were not going to turn out like I planned. Sitting in my car, I didn't hear an audible voice, but I definitely sensed a quiet, confident reminder that God did, in fact, know what He was up to after all.

Later that evening, my sister in law and I were checking into a hotel and I saw a familiar face from this same season of life. We hugged and laughed, tried to quickly summarize over a decade of living in three short minutes before rushing off to the evening's events. She joked about how far the Lord had brought her in the many years since we'd been in Bible study together. I knew she was one of the women speaking at the conference and as expected, when she delivered her presentation, she blew us all out of our chairs. Again, the not so subtle reminder that He does work all things for good.

Finally, before we left the conference, we randomly chose a verse from a basket. I gasped when I read my selection: "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." -Jeremiah 29:11.

Clearly I'm a slow learner with a short memory because God reminded me of His sovereignty in many instances throughout the weekend. My self-absorption gets in the way far too often. I think old Ferris might have a great point. If we don't stop and look around, we miss far too much.