Grateful for Our People

A month of gratitude! Let’s focus on gratitude throughout the month of November. I challenge you to look around and be more aware of the blessings in your life. And each day write down at least five things you are thankful for.

We are surrounded by people, all day and every day. Even if we live alone, we can’t avoid people. We interact with people at the grocery store, at work, at church, and at home. Not all relationships will be stellar, no matter how much we wish they were. Some people won’t like us, no matter what we do. We will have conflicts and trials in life, and they often deal with people. We might even have our own family members cause strife for us or shun us. In the world of social media, we all have hundreds of “friends.” But in reality the majority are not deep, bonding type of friendships. Unfortunately, in today’s society, many of our friendships are only surface level. Superior relationships in our world should be cherished.

I recently had someone confront me. I don’t want to get into the details, but the bottom line is that I felt blindsided. I was running my race, thinking all was well, when someone came along and knocked my feet out from under me. (This was really an attack from the enemy to steer me off course, but I won’t get into that now.) Although this confrontation was hurtful, in the end the incident brought gratitude. Why? Because it made me grateful for my people. It made me grateful for the trusted person who I could turn to about what happened and who agreed that I did nothing wrong. And it made me grateful for all the wonderful people in my life who are always there by my side, rooting me on, and encouraging me. People who faithfully show up, day after day. People who love me despite my flaws. People who bring joy into my life.

As I look over my gratitude journal from this year, there are dozens and dozens of entries reflecting on people that I am grateful for. Entries like:

• My husband texting me “I love you” when I am at work.
• Talking to my parents on the phone who live over a thousand miles away.
• My sister who I talk to via text almost daily and she is always there to answer when I need her.
• A friend who often tells me how much my writing is a blessing to her.
• A coworker who left a nice note on my desk.
• Friends who came to my first book signing.
• A friend who owns a blueberry farm and made my first book signing possible.
• Faithful friends who kindly offered to be on my book launch team.
• Lovely people who walked beside me when I hosted the Redeemed Challenge. I was hoping to help inspire them, but as iron sharpens iron, they inspired me too.
• Other bloggers who have been a blessing to me.
• Saying hello to a neighbor at the community mailbox.
• Seeing family who we had not seen in a while, which brought a bit of peace, as we were attending a funeral.
• Even my dogs who bring love and comfort. (Yes, our pets can be our people too!)

My heart is so full when I look over this list. Yes, we will have negative experiences with some people. But we shouldn’t let those experiences cloud the wonderful experiences we have with our people. So today, as you focus on gratitude, think about the people in your life who are there for and take a moment to tell them that you appreciate them.

And with that, I would like to say “thank you” to you for being here. A writer’s life can be lonely. We never know who will read our writing. And as we send our work out into the world, it can bring anxiety, as we don’t know how it will be received. So having wonderful people like you show up faithfully to read these blog posts and encourage me along the way means more to me than you will ever know!

I thank my God every time I remember you. ~ Philippians 1:3

… And remember that every day is a gift from God!

(I will be sharing similar gratitude related posts here the first four Saturdays of this month. So be sure to visit again. And on each Thursday of this month, I will be sharing similar gratitude related posts on Christians Read. If you want to read the most recent Thursday post, click here.)