Still Grateful



Okay, so if you're feeling anything like me, you're a little weary of all the talk of thankfulness. I was starting to feel that way too, quite honestly. But then God opens my eyes to some amazing thing, and I think "Hey, I'm still thankful!"

So in the aftermath of Thanksgiving, I just have to share one more thing I'm truly grateful for today. And actually it's pretty appropriate considering my husband and I are little behind on the holidays here. Case in point: if you drove around our cul-de-sac you'd notice our neighbors have packed away their scarecrows, pumpkins and wreaths full of fall leaves. The day after Thanksgiving (for one family, the day after Halloween!) these folks strung their white Christmas lights and hung their silver and gold wreaths.

That is, except us.

So I figure it makes sense for me to hang out in Thanksgiving here, since I'm still in the spirit anyway. Surely by my next blog post, I'll have thrown away my pumpkins and stored my harvest wreath. (Hey, let's hope for the best.)

Well anyway, this morning I am feeling grateful for something I often take for granted. I'm grateful for the Body of Christ. I'm grateful that wherever we go, whatever city we relocate to, God always brings beautiful Christian people into our lives.

This Thanksgiving my family hosted a family with four daughters. Our eight kids had an absolute ball together. We experienced non-stop action the whole holiday. I'm still tired. But we so enjoyed our friends, some of our oldest friends that we met way back in our Maryland days. It was such a blessed time, leaving me with a full and grateful heart.

And last night we hosted a young couple that my husband married a couple years ago in Franklin, Tennessee. These sweet friends are adopting a precious baby girl who currently lives in Little Rock, so God has sweetly orchestrated us being a small part of their adoption journey. Spending time with them here in our home and hearing their hearts full of anticipation over meeting their daughter was such a blessing. And it gave me an extra push to continue my labor in orphan care ministry.

So today, I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters in Christ around the corner, around the country and around the world. I'm thankful for you reading this blog. At times like this I get a glimpse of heaven, when we'll spend eternity together in complete unity and peace.

Until then, I'll enjoy the beautiful glimpses that God gives me here.


With a Grateful Heart,

Carla

Comments

  1. Cheryl Linn MartinDecember 1, 2011 at 1:11 AM

    Nice photo, Carla! We're usually last in our neighborhood to put up the Christmas lights, but this year my husband got on it last week and had them up (not lit, though, until after Thanksgiving!)

    Thanks for the reminder to be thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ--amazing how He provides for us!

    ReplyDelete
  2. carlaahendricksDecember 1, 2011 at 9:28 AM

    Cheryl, thanks for visiting me here. I enjoyed touring your website too. I look forward to following you as well. I'll enjoy visiting Hawaii through you. Blessings to you and your writing endeavors!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ambassador: His Rise, Fall and Rise Again

Image
I recently began a Facebook Group called "A Pastor's Wife's Garden" with the goal of connecting hearts with other pastor's wives like myself. The idea for this group came totally from the Lord one day while I watched a recording of an interview on CBN. The topic of this interview: William Branch, also known as The Ambassador, also known as Duce, and his wife discussing the challenge of his emotional affair with another woman. To give a little backstory, Duce is a Christian hip hop artist that co-founded and led Cross Movement, a rap group that took the Christian world by storm in 1996. All original founding members, including Duce, grew up in Philadelphia. Having earned a Masters degree in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary -- graduating with honors, by the way -- he began co-pastoring Epiphany Fellowship Church, a growing and vibrant multi-ethnic church in Philly. That is, until he fell into this emotional affair. At that point Duce was asked to leav
Read more

Five Things Not to Say to Adoptive Parents

Image
The Hendricks Clan "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  Did you grow up hearing that adage? I don't think I reached age ten before I realized how false that saying is. The scars of sticks and stones heal with time. The scars of hurtful words? Many of us will take our share of those scars to our graves. If you have adopted, you've heard your share of ill-timed/insensitive questions and comments. Many will come from the lips of perfect strangers. This can be annoying, but in the end, feels rather harmless. Yet sometimes the offenses come from the people closest to us -- parents, grandparents, siblings, long-time friends. Some of those words have left scars on your soul. And maybe on the souls of your child. This post is not only for those of us that have adopted. This post is for our family members, our close friends, our fellow church and community members. This post is for our loved ones who may be very happy for us, b
Read more

The Shooting of Michael Brown: What I Know for Sure

Image
It's been exactly two weeks since Michael Brown , age 18, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.  Other than a few discussions at home with my family, I haven't talked much about this volatile situation. I've wanted to share about it here in Deep Waters , but I've wanted to speak intelligently about it. There's just so much I don't know about this case right now. And then I received an email from a sweet sister-friend that told me she'd checked my blog for my reaction to the Ferguson crisis. She encouraged me to "weigh-in" here, and I knew I needed to break my silence. I feel like I did when I wrote about the Trayvon Martin crisis back in May 2012 in "Our Sons Are Trayvon." I feel the way I did when I wrote about the verdict in the Zimmerman trial back in July 2013 in "Zimmerman Found Not Guilty/The Church Found Guilty" . I feel like there's so much I don't know. I wasn
Read more