In everything give thanks - 2012.

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Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 

My spiritual life has really taken a turn for the better this year.  We've seen some bumps in the road during 2012, but God pulled us through every single time.

I'm so thankful that God has brought me closer to Him this year through #shereadstruth.  This devotional seems to click with me and make sense to me in a way I haven't had individual devotionals work for me before.  It's a joy, eye opening and life changing.

I tell you, 2012 hasn't been easy. Describing it as a roller coaster would be pretty appropriate. A group of six people prayed for my family - they would drop everything and pray the moment a text message or email was received from me.  They will forever be special people to my family... we call them our Prayer Peeps.  They have taught me so much about faithfulness and prayer. So very grateful for them.

Something I'm still trying to learn - how to be thankful in all things.  Just the word "cancer" scares the poop out of me. Especially when it's associated with my dad, my awesome, wonderful, larger than life Pops.  How can he have cancer?  And I have struggled with how to pray about it - asking God for His will to be done, but please let that will be for dad to be cured of this horrible disease!

But Dr. Charles Stanley's monthly devotional came out and there it was written out for me: Be thankful in all things. All things. Not just those that I like. And so, I'm finding ways to even be thankful for the bad things in life, because they do serve a purpose and good can come from them.  (Blind faith in God's plan being one of them.) So I pray still for him to be cured, but I also thank God for the time I've already had with dad, for the guidance he's given me over all these years and for helping me find the priorities in life again. Sometimes you need a reminder. (I didn't say it was easy, but I'm learning...)