Some weeks overflow with blessings. Other weeks, we have to be more intentional in looking for them. This week has been full, and it’s a joy to share with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story. Please feel free to join in!
1. Thanksgiving. I am thankful we have a day set aside to remind us to be thankful. We had a wonderful day with all the family except our out-of-state one, plus had an abundance of good food. We watched a couple of episodes of The Santa Clauses, though we each dozed in different parts. 🙂 We tried to play some Jackbox games, but the system kept crashing–probably a lot of other people had the same idea. We did our “Thanksgiving tree” throughout the day, writing on leaves the things we were grateful for.
I forgot to mention last week I’m thankful we found a turkey! I had heard they might be scarce and expensive, but we didn’t find that to be the case.
2. Testimony times. The church we’ve been visiting had an opportunity both in Sunday School and then in the midweek service to share what we’re thankful for. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in a service given over to testimonies, and this one reminded me that churches used to do this regularly. It was such a joy to hear different ones’ stories of how God worked in their lives.
3. Bad news/good news from the dentist. I hadn’t had any dental problems for years and wasn’t expecting any. But at my regular dental cleaning, the hygienist found a cavity in a tooth under a bridge. She thought that repairing it would mean removing the bridge, and if there was not enough of the original tooth left, she predicted I’d need an implant. She went on and on about what getting an implant involved (a six-month process). I was pretty overwhelmed and discouraged. There are worse things to endure, but it was still dismaying to discover out of the blue that all this would need to be done. But when the dentist came in to check me, she thought she could patch the cavity with a regular filling. She said there was a small chance that, once she got in there, she’d find that more work needed to be done. But she felt pretty confident a filling would do what was needed. That was a relief.
4. A productive errand-running day. Whether due to age or physical issues–or both–it’s hard for me to be out all day. But while I had to be out to go to the dentist, I wanted to try to get as much errand-running done as I could so I didn’t have to go out again later in the week. I prioritized my list and got everything done except the couple of things that there was no urgency for. Those things could even wait til the new year if need be.
5. Safety. While out on those errands, I was trying to tentatively back out in a busy parking lot. It was nerve-racking because cars and people were coming from all directions, so I inched out a bit at a time while trying to look every which way. Then I saw in my rear-view mirror the car behind me was backing out quickly, coming straight towards me. God gave me the presence of mind to hit the brake and horn at the same time, and the other car stopped and then pulled back into its space.
Are you Black Friday shopping? We’re gratefully spending the day indoors, but we might shop online a bit.
Happy Friday!
Stray Thoughts 
Happy Thanksgiving to you Barbara and to your wonderful family.
We had no trouble (well, my brother in law I mean) finding a turkey either.
I love that you are in a church which shares personal testimonies. I miss that. (it would be hard to do at ours since our 9 am service has about 550 attenders and our 11 am service has about 1200!!). But every once in awhile during baptisms or special services, the person getting baptized will share one or various staff members will share one. I do miss the smaller churches for that reason. My youngest girl when she was at UNH attended a church that had people sharing testimonies during a morning service. She was very impressed with that.
No I refuse to do Black Friday shopping although one year I did do some shopping when we were in Boston proper. Today we are NOT heading into Boston but will leave the hotel and head to the south shore where dave’s parents live. I will probably do a litte more for Cyber Monday when the sales are even bigger! most of my Xmas shopping is done though as we no longer buy a lot of stuff for one another.
Enjoy the weekend
Hello. So glad you had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope the dental work goes well and that the dentist can make the needed fix quickly and easily. So glad you were safe during your drive and didn’t have a pre-holiday mishap. We have one Sunday a month devoted to personal testimonies from members of the congregation. It can be very uplifting. I hope you have a good weekend. See you again soon!
Glad about your good news at the dentist coming just after the bad. It’s been several years here too since my last “dental woes” episode, and it reminds me that I should appreciate the good stretches more 🙂 Glad too about your nice Thanksgiving!
It’s been a while since I’ve been at a service given over to testimonies like that. It’s such an invigorating time. So often, people would share difficulties that no one knew about. It’s lovely that you were part of that during Thanksgiving week.
I do hope you won’t have to go the implant route. You’re right that it’s not the worst thing, but it is a long process and an expensive one at that 😦
Whew! Thank God you were kept from that accident. I’m thankful I don’t need to be at any shops until next weekend at least!
I’m glad you had a nice Thanksgiving. I’ve watched the first episode of the Santa Clauses. Cute.. The Santa Clause is such a favorite of mine, although I wasn’t crazy about the third sequel, and it’s great to see Tim Allen back in the part. I’m waiting to see Bernard again which I understand will happen. He was a favorite character!
Praise God for His safety out on those roads! I’m glad that you avoided the parking lot accident. I had a close call one afternoon the week of my cat sitting that I can only attribute to angels watching over me! It’s great to get all those errands done in one trip.
Good news about your dentist visit. Not the problem but that hopefully the dentist can repair it easily.
I love it that the church provides times for testimonies. It’s so encouraging to others and it’s a blessing to tell others what God has done for us!
Looking forward to our lunch in a couple days.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Isn’t it fun to have family nearby to celebrate holidays?
I am so glad you were not hit in that parking lot. This time of year people are just crazy drivers.
I don’t usually shop on Black Friday and we go for a hike, but this year my daughter and I broke the tradition and went to a yarn shop that had a special yarn we wanted to check out.
Have a great weekend!
I’m glad you got your turkey and enjoyed Thanksgiving. I hope the dentist can do the repair on your tooth. I love it when I have a productive day and tick things off the to do list. Phew glad an accident was avoided. I usually try to reverse into parking spaces so that I can drive out but it’s not always an option. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving! Sounds like a lovely thanksgiving celebration was had by your family. Parking lots are crazy right now. Glad you didn’t have a fender bender. Glad you got good news so far from the dentist.
Pingback: November Reflections | Stray Thoughts