Friday’s Favourites: November 12, 2010

This is my 11^th week of participating in Friday’s Fave Five hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. I love that this contemplative writing exercise is on my mind many times each week. This shows me that I am thinking about my blessings.

God is not stingy. There is much to be grateful for each week. And in truth my list could very easily be Friday’s Fave Fifty. Below are five blessings I plucked out from the many I’ve received this week.

Blessing One – I am grateful that I am closer to my goal of decluttering the garage. Moving from a house to an apartment by necessity requires thinning out the possessions, but when you have a garage that necessity can be delayed. This past week I removed four boxes of stuff (books, clothes, art supplies). That was one of my goals for these remaining months of 2010.

Blessing Two – The highlight of my week was the women’s ministry team meeting. Creative ideas flowed. I.e. We made plans for the Women’s Regifting Christmas Party (Dec. 4 with Pamela Finney as our speaker), Retreat (June 10-12), Secret Sister Program (forms out late Dec./early Jan.) and our breakfast/walkathon fundraiser (April 30). The money from this will go to building a woman’s community center overseas. Compassion and encouragement flowed. I.e. We shared our concerns and hurts and found comfort in each other’s words and prayer. To show my gratitude to them, I gave each lady a c-u-t-e teapot candle that I picked up last week at a teahouse I visited with some friends.

Blessing Three – Pastor Mike is leading 5 of us through the book Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson. What a privilege to get this type of tutelage as part of my job! This week’s lesson was about asking 3 questions of the text we are studying. (1) What does it mean? (2) Is it true? Do I believe it? (3) So what? What difference does it make in my life and in the lives of others? It’s grand to know that the Bible is applicable today even if/when I have a hard time believing and/or applying its principles.

Blessing Four – My shoulder is feeling better. The pain is not as constant nor as intense. I can finally think about other things, although I still need to keep up with certain routines.

Blessing Five – I am grateful for the encouragement movies can provide. I don’t have cable or rabbit ears, so my TV does not get reception. However, I am minutes away from Blockbuster and several stores that have Redbox. This week I enjoyed The Tale of Despereaux and Love Finds a Home. The link for Love Finds a Home is not a trailer, but part 1 of 9 of the movie. Yep; you can watch it for free on Youtube. Two other movies that I’ve viewed recently that encouraged me (and were just fun to watch) include Temple Grandin, and How to Tame a Dragon (I read about this on someone else’s FFF several weeks ago).

Your Turn . . .

1. What did you do this week that moved you closer to one of your goals?
2. What did you most enjoy doing this week?
3. What did you learn that turned out to be a blessing?
4. What movies do you recommend because of their encouraging nature?