Giving Thanks for Faith, Family, Friends by Sharon Espeseth

In our front entry, over the door, we have a wooden sign that says, "Faith, Family and Friend." I liked this when I got it at a gift exchange, because it is emblematic of what is important in life and in our household. And I display it with appreciation.

Faith

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." (Psalm 126:3 NIV) From creation to salvation to watching over us to his unfailing love and patience . . . the realm of what God has done and is doing for us is endless. I cannot contain my faith in the brevity of a blog, but "I will sing of the Lord's great love forever; with my mouth (and my writing and my living), I will make your faithfulness known through all generations." (Psalm 89:1 NIV)

I am thankful for the faith I learned from my elders and accepted as my own. I am thankful for God's Word that teaches how to serve the living God and how to live as Christ taught us. God's Word-- written by prophets, teachers, kings, and  apostles called from ordinary walks of life--informs my day-to-day life and my writing. "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)

Many good books have been written and many excellent resources are available, but today I am giving thanks for the Holy Bible, the foundation of our faith.

Family

Like most of you, our family got together this past weekend and celebrated our thankfulness for each other and for the many other blessings in our lives. To me, our family is an earthly symbol of God's caring for us. How would shy Hank and quiet Sharon have managed to find each other in this noisy world, had it not been for the the Good Lord's leading, guidance, and wisdom? Yes, I was wise to marry Hank--not that I am perfect nor that he is perfect, but we are perfect for each other. And 42 years later, here we still are looking after and loving one another.

We wanted a family and God saw that we would have a family. Our first child, a baby boy, arrived 5 1/2 months after we submitted our adoption application. The second child, a baby girl, arrived 13 months later. The third child, another girl arrived on Valentine's Day the following year. Within 37 months, we had three children and life was in full gear.


God is great.
God is good.
But let us not thank him
just for the food.


Our family continues to grow by sons-in-law and grandchildren. We now are a family of 13 and we have much to be thankful for. When Hank and I were young, strong and full of energy, we didn't see the road ahead. As we have aged, health problems and waning energy can hold us captive. When we need help, however, the kids come. The kids are a source of help and support: a resource of sorts, but much more!

Our Original Family of Five

I always have been, and still am, close to the members of my birth family. Although some of our family have left this earthly realm, I am thankful for their loving influence on my life. I am thankful for my sisters and their families, who are also an important part of our lives.

None of us is perfect, but God has a way of working with broken vessels. He takes us where and as we are and leads us, if we are willing, to the place he knows is best for us.


Friends

We who have good friends are blessed. We can get busy in our lives and forget to show our appreciation for their friendships. A friend is a resource who can bring a well-spring of joy and blessing to our lives, and hopefully we can bring blessing to their lives as well.

Writing this blog seems an appropriate time to say thanks to the friends I have gained through my writing years. I think of the Women Word Weavers in our hometown. Some of our founding members, including me, are still around for the meetings, for keeping in touch, exchanging ideas, and encouraging one another. How thankful I am for their faithfulness and loyalty.

InScribe Christian Writer's Fellowship has been another boon to my continued growth and confidence in myself as a writer. I am thankful for the group as a whole, for our dedicated executive and volunteer workers, for Connie Inglis and Jack Popjes as spiritual advisors, and for the members of the prayer group, who offer prayer support for our members when it is needed.

As Paul said to the Philippians,

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel . . ." (Philippians 1:3-5a NIV)

My Community of Writers Thus Far by Alan Anderson

“I thank my God every time I remember you” (Philippians 1:3)

I wear different “hats” as it were as I make my way through my journey of life.  I am a husband, a dad, a papa, a brother, a cousin, an uncle, a friend, a spiritual health professional and a child of God.  My relationship with God is the only one that allows me to be a child.  I kind of miss being a child!  More about that perhaps another time!

I would be negligent if I did not include I am also a writer.  I love writing!  I love reading as well!  In my writing I like to choose my words well.  In life I also like to choose my friends well!

I am a member of InScribe Christian Writer’s Fellowship and The Word Guild.  I choose my writing relationships well and have learned a lot from writers in these groups.  A goal I have is to one day be as helpful to these writers as they are to me!  I am immensely thankful for the encouragement I receive from such caring writers here and would like to mention a few.  Unknown to them, they are my community of writers!

Glynis M. Belec is a major encourager to me!  She is one of the experienced writers encouraging me to take the plunge and write one of the books living in my heart.  She is one of my stars!  I could go on but wouldn’t want her to start blushing! Well. Maybe I would!  Susan Harris is another writer I love like a sister, although we have never met and has been an inspiration to me.  Bobbi Junior is what I see as a writer unafraid to be frank and honest in her stories.  I love the blog posts of Gloria Guest.  I seem to resonate with her words many times.  Tracy Krauss gave me my first opportunity to post on a regular basis.  I am grateful to her for helping me bring some of my word friends into the light.  Christine Lindsay recently allowed me to be a guest author on her blog and has invited me to do so again.  Irish Beth Maddock makes words alive for children and is a treasure!  Ruth Snyder has also been a tremendous encouragement to me in her writing and leadership of InScribe.  Sheila Webster, our fearless editor of FellowScript Magazine, gave me a wonderful surprise recently by asking me to write an article.  That was an amazing honour!

If readers will please forgive the length of the paragraph above I would be grateful!  I just wanted to name a few people I admire.  I must note that I have never met any of my community of writers in person so far.  That will hopefully change some day in God’s timing!

Although I have come alongside people for many years and listened to their stories I have often been reluctant to share my own with others.  Perhaps my introversion has allowed that.  I can listen to the stories of joy and pain all the way to a person’s last few moments of her or his life.  I still, however, on some level resist the thought that people would be interested in my story.  Due to the encouragement of my community of writers I am taking my writing journey one step at a time.

My community of writers is in my prayers! I love you all!

Blog: ScarredJoy@wordpress.com