Coffee and Conversation Link Up: What are You Thankful For This Year?

Coffee and Conversation is a new link-up that my new blog-friend, Kalyn, and a blog friend of hers, Lauren, started co-hosting JUST this week! I am so excited to be participating because as much as I love to free write, I also love having a set topic to write about.The aim of Coffee and Conversation is to allow bloggers to meet up on Monday's, grab a button, and get to typing about things that are on their hearts. As many of you know, and as Kalyn explained last week - coffee is sometimes what brings us together. It's so easy to tell a friend, "Hey, let's grab a coffee and chat!" I know for me personally it is the glue that has held 4 generations together in my family. On Saturdays or Sundays, you can often find us curled up on the couch in one of our living rooms, grasping tightly to a cup of coffee, chatting about everything girls chat about. Needless to say, I think this is a fantastic idea, and I am so excited to be a part of it. I hope you will too!This weeks topic: What are you most thankful for this year?What an exciting question! Where do I begin? I am thankful for the things that most people would probably mention: God's love and faithfulness, family, friends, love, a roof over my head, and all of the other things that I haven't mentioned that we all take for granted, but here are the reasons why...

Without the love of Christ, I don't know how on earth I would make it through each week day. He has shown Himself more to me over the course of the last two semesters than ever before, and I promise I would have thrown in the towel if it hadn't been for Him speaking through my everyday life. Every morning before class, I read through my devotion "Jesus Calling", and I am always reminded of His love for us. Not only does He love us, but He loved us enough to send His only son to DIE for our sins. Our sins that are far deeper and rooted than anyone could imagine, but He forgives us and buries those sins as far as the east is from the west. Not only does He love us, but He loved us enough to leave behind a book of reminders, examples, encouragement, and guidelines for us to have. This Book is a survival guide to making it through this life, and even though there is no guarantee that it will be easy - it's far more tolerable when The Lord is on your side, and I am thankful for that. 

I am thankful for my family because I have learned since graduating high school and junior college that they are the ones who remain faithful even when friends you've had your whole life do not. I am proud to come from a close knit family, and I am even more proud to say that during the storms of our lives, we just hold on tighter to each other and brave them out. Family has never been something that I would say I have taken for granted, but I believe that as I grow older I realize how short life really is, and how much time I will wish I had spent with them here on this earth, so I am thankful for the time we DO spend together. I am particularly thankful this year for the relationship that I have grown to have with my brother. He and I were never close growing up, and now he is one of my closest companions. It is such a blessing {and equally NEAT} to have a sibling as a best friend, and it is something I have prayed about since I recognized it in other people - I am so THANKFUL that God heard my cry and has allowed my relationship with Matt to flourish over the course of the last year. 

I am thankful for David, my sole reason for creating this blog. I am thankful that God allowed our paths  to cross at just the right time and not a second before. I am thankful for his kind spirit, his patience, and his over-pouring love that he has for me. It has brought me through some tough times over the last year and a half, and I love being by his side through his struggles and triumphs. His quiet example has taught me a lot about myself and the person that I am. His humble spirit has made me appreciate him more every single day, and I look forward to the time we will spend together in the future. I absolutely love "dating with the intent to marry". I feel as if we learn something new about each other each day, things we didn't know even six months ago, and I am so glad that we have these next couple of years to continue to grow and learn in our relationship together as well as our relationship with The Lord.

Lastly, I am thankful for {some of} the things we have here in America that aren't present elsewhere. In 2011, I was given the opportunity to travel to Honduras with our church and minister to the Honduran People. What an eye opener! We take the smallest things, like having clean sheets before we go to bed, for granted. God showed me how important meals, roofs, and even shoes were while I was there - and even now, almost exactly two years later, I still take these things for granted. Life isn't about materialistic things, sure, but when we do have them - we should remember those things and be thankful for them. There are people all over, not just in Honduras, who are way less fortunate than we are, and sometimes I believe we get carried away with "junk" we don't always need. 

With all of that "thankfulness" being told, 

I have to say that it is reminding myself of these things that gets me through times when I feel like I don't know which way to turn. I have to remind myself that I have an unfailing God who's love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me. A family who will also have my back no matter what, my best friend - David, whom I love and adore, to talk me through those hard times, as well as the home, transportation, and other materialistic things that I sometimes take for granted. 

Now, don't you want to join in and tell me what you're thankful for? How bout you grab that button and link up yourself! Can't wait to see what you have to say!*all photos are my own.