Thankful Day 1- Family

I've been inspired by last month's 31 day challenge in which people wrote a blog everyday for the month of October. I decided I am going to write a blog everyday in the month if November. I hope I'm up for the challenge! The theme of this month's blogs will be what I am thankful for. I know this will be good for my heart this month as we celebrate Thanksgiving and all the joy to be had. :)

Today I am thankful for my family. I love living life with them and getting to love on their hearts. Are there crazy moments of crying babies and never ending diaper changes and I feel like my patience is so thin? Of course! But my husband and kiddos are a GIFT from The Lord.

I get to love them in a way that no one else can. I know what encourages their hearts and speaks life in moments of sadness or doubt. I know listening to my husband process his thoughts speaks life to him. To joke about the craziness of young kid life makes it fun for us. I know if in the middle of a quite moment, if I stand up and start singing loud and dancing my 4 year old's face lights up and she is asking me to hold her in my arms and spin her around. I know my 1 year old loves hugs, my full attention and snuggle time. He loves to scream out and if we take turns screaming out he is smiling ear to ear.

Today I will choose to love them well. I can only do this through the Holy Spirit and because God loved me first, I know what love is from my Heavenly Father. 1 John 4:7-12:

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

May my heart rest today in knowing I know what love is.  I experience deep communion with my Heavenly Father who's love compels me to love others as He loves me. I yearn to walk in this true of knowing I have life everlasting because of Him and have the ability to love others in this way.