One Thousand Gifts

I am really going to try and be better at this, I swear! Here is a brief update:

On July 19, we received a phone call that would change our lives temporarily.  My father-in-law, Paul, had gone to the doctor to get a lump in his neck checked out.  They did a biopsy, and found that he had 2 more lumps and that they were cancerous.  After more tests, they found that the cancer was located in his left tonsil and had spread to his lymph nodes. Thankfully it had not reached the status of Lymphoma, but was still full-blown cancer and would need to start treatment immediately.  The prognosis is good, but the treatment is absolutely brutal.  The number one thing I have learned about cancer is that it is an hour-by-hour process.  His health varies throughout the day.
We wanted so badly to be there with our family that day, and it really hit us hard that not living near family really, for lack of a better word, sucks.  We had always talked about settling in Greensboro one day, but that day had come.  This was the push that we really needed to go on ahead and get there.  God since then has opened door after door to get us there. 

Sadly, I will be leaving sweet Shelby and the Carpenters (Allie Carpenter of The Saturday Housewife), when she turns a year old and starts day care.  Justin has a great opportunity with Syngenta brewing up, and we are simply waiting on that call for his formal job offer. We have to be ready to go at any moment! The hardest part of all of this is leaving our beloved Summit Church.  WE LOVE SUMMIT.  More than I have ever loved any church, ever.  Few times in my life have I had the opportunity to play with such talented musicians.  However, God is seriously at work....The Summit Church has a brand new church plant in Greensboro which we are feeling led to be a part of! I am so blessed and happy to be serving a God who takes care of the details.

There is something else I am going to start doing, which will hopefully enable me to write more (gosh I miss it)....GOALS!
Here are my September Goals (which I realize it's already half over but oh well)
1. Run 2-3 miles per day instead of every other day (my new kicks really help!)
2. Lift weights 2-3 times per week to supplement cardio
3. Finish reading One Thousand Gifts
4. Start packing up the apartment
5. Have a Pumpkin Spice Latte on the first day of Autumn!
6. Start reading The Hobbit so I can actually say I've read it and go see the movie

So there we go. I have so many things to be thankful for. The book One Thousand Gifts has taught me that living in "eucharisto" is absolutely essential to the Christian life and living in reverence to God. It is the source of complete Joy! I now understand how to achieve this "joy joy joy joy down in my heart".  The root word of "eucharisto" is "charis" which means "grace". God's grace. Understanding grace, how can we not live in complete thanksgiving? The root word of "charis" is "chara" which means "joy". THERE it is. The literal root of grace and thanksgiving is Joy! Start naming what you are thankful for today and not just one day of the year.

in Jesus name,

Molly