Opened Eyes of Gratitude!

Thankfulness, that is all I am feeling right now. I keep asking myself "why"? Why has God given me SO much? Why does he feel I am a good enough person to deserve a husband who looks at me as gold and treats me like a princess everyday? Why has he blessed me with not just 1 but now 2 beautiful healthy little girls that I do not deserve? For once in my life, I have so much thankfulness to God because I know that he is the only thing that has the power to keep this in my life. In an instant it all can be taken away, and at this moment he has chosen to give it to me.

I have been so in tuned to getting out of debt because it is such an obstacle to giving more to people. I always tell people that time tells all, literally. When we have a span of time to look back and stare at all the pixels of the picture, we can clearly see God's hand at work. Man, I see it... and I can only tell it is not complete. When we first learned of our debt (yes, it is something people are not educated on most of the time, their OWN debt) we were so excited to try to get out of it so we could focus on things like, remodel our house, go on vacations, etc... God has clearly been setting obstacles in front of us to show us that we just aren't going to be getting out as soon as we would hope. God's will... funny thing...

I must say that a year and two months have gone by sense debtville USA has entered our house and our motives for getting out have certainly changed...

1st thing: Everything we have is GODS! We can not contain anything without his mercy. It makes me so sad to think this because people deny him everyday and he still sends blessings. I can be considered one myself at times.

we were labeling everything we "own" in our financial class a couple weeks ago, and it was so neet to see what everyone wrote... We wrote things like our house, cars, clothes... And the other couples who don't have those things yet wrote things like, CD's, Dvd's, Guitar... It made me realize that no matter how much we have, we look at it as OURS and something we obtained so we must hold it dear. It also made me realize, that when we give it all to God, if we ever lose it... we know we never had it in the first place...

So here is my point to all this... I have been feeling so guilty lately about thoughts of material possessions. I made a list of all the clothing articles I think one person needs, all the clothing articles I would want according to a desired amount calculated not by greed but a little treat and need, and all the clothing articles I have... I was going to go through the clothes and limit it down to what I "want"... But now, I am feeling it should still be less... No matter the number, this is how my system will work...

I will have a set number for items... If I want a new one, I MUST GIVE something away... If something gets ruined... I get a treat :) I get to purchase 1 new item to replace it... If I don't wear something for more than 2 months (Not due to out of season purposes) I will get rid of it and lower my number on the list... :) (Not replace it)

I have had this idea ever since we dedicated our stuff to God... I am working on getting Dustin on board... but he swears his "need" of 30 pairs of boxers is legit... We will get there slowly... It is not that big of a deal to him because clothes are not a sacrifice to him anyways... I ultimately want to do it with more than clothes, but I figure this is a great start...

All in all, I just want to say "THANKS" to everyone who has helped us out! This week our baby was born... (Brylie Genesis De Vriend) She is more than we could have asked for!

Touching moment: Joan and Chuck (Elders in our church who work with us in Jr. High) made us dinner last night... (Very tasty) While they were here we were sharing stories of other parents in our church. There are 2 parents who are blind with baby girl twins... Chuck was telling us the Blind man's testimony and got choked up right at the end... I could see the love God has for us and how powerful he can be... I have always been a witness to others testimony's and their power when it was their own story... but to have the testimony passed though 2 mouths and still see its power was amazing!

Thanks God For EVERY(THING) (ONE) you have blessed me with in this life...