Thanksgiving

Things for which I am thankful:

• God's humility--that He cares for such small silly creatures.
• Jesus' humility--that He not only became a man and submitted to death on a cross but that He allows His glory and image to be vested upon anyone who so desires to have it by simply following Him and acknowledging that He is the only one who truly deserves it.
• Humiliating experiences that have allowed me to find a better road.
• God's patience--that no matter how many times I learn a lesson and how many times I forget it, He is willing to forgive me again and teach me again, if I will only remember to repent and acknowledge my need of Him.
• The diversity of mankind--that there are people-people, task-people, vision-people, creative-people, concrete-people, and so on, and that each gift is lovely and beautiful in its own way. I'm learning to appreciate each of these qualities for itself and in the process to actually accept myself for who I am and the way God designed me even if it's not the way I would have designed me, and for this I am thankful.
• Hope. I can get entirely fed up with myself and overwhelmed with my unending wandering from the truths I have known all my life, but I have a sure hope in Christ that He is leading me into paths of righteousness.
• God's word. It is a strange book, but it is light and life.
• Home, parents, family, friends. I feel so incredibly blessed with amazing relationships and a peaceful, safe, loving home in this foreign land.
• Laughter, fun, tennis, dancing, music, singing, rain, breezes, fall leaves. The beauties and joys of living.
• Conviction, confession, repentance. Perhaps this sounds a strange one, but I have sincerely been thankful for these experiences of late. I am truly thankful when I feel God's Spirit moving in my heart and leading to these experiences because certainly these things do not happen when I am the one in control.
• Holiness, Dignity, Glory. I am thankful for visions of majestic kingdoms and the peoples that live in such lands and knowing that we are intended to be those very people.
• Words and precision. I love words, and I love precision. Put those together, and I love using the most appropriate word for a particular situation. So I am thankful for occasions when words and precision come together. ;-)
• Knitting and other simple tasks. These bring me strange joy.
• The hope of marriage and motherhood.
• Sorrow and being able to see my folly. These, too, I find to be evidences of the Holy Spirit's presence, and so I am often thankful when I experience sadness in my heart or see clearly the foolishness of my desires or behavior.
• Bumblebee, my car. I decided to start calling my car Bumblebee after seeing "Transformers." =) He's so cute. But really, I am thankful for my car. I like him a lot.

For what are you thankful?

Forcing Civility

Today as I approached the entrance to Barnes and Noble, a man approached the door at about the same distance only from another angle. I could tell that we would arrive at about the same time and that can always be a bit awkward. I considered speeding up or slowing down my pace, but I guess I could not figure out a way to alter my gait in a natural way because I ended up at the door a split second before he—not the result I would have decided upon. “Why would there even be a decision to make here?” you may be wondering and, fortunately for you, here I will offer an explanation:

I did not like the idea of speeding up because it seemed sort of rude, unfriendly, I’m-an-independent-American-woman-and-I-don’t-need-interaction-with-other-humans-ish, or something like that. Rather, I would have preferred to arrive behind him at such a point that he would have the freedom to wait and hold the door for me or to go in on his own without appearing uncivil.

So speeding up was not an option, but for some reason I did not have presence of mind to fain searching in my purse or some distraction of that sort to slow my approach, and not only that, I decided--despite my early arrival to the entrance--that I wanted him to open the door for me. So there I was at the door before him and yet I just stood there when a normal person would have reached out her hand to grab the handle. He did open the door for me, and I smiled and said thank-you very politely and proceeded to open the second door myself, but I can’t help wondering what this man thought of my insistence of gentility.

So, what do you think? Was it rude of me to not only expect but almost force this stranger to open the door for me? Or did I do the world a service by not allowing an opportunity for civility to pass by? Men, what would you have thought of such a girl? Ladies, can you relate?

PS
I wonder if this entry sheds light on why I'm so indecisive?