Thankful Saturday...

I missed Thankful Thursday, *again*. I've been thinking about this post since Thursday, if that makes any difference! And God has given even more to be thankful for since then.

1. I am thankful for the work God is doing in our family. What a blessing to know that He has a plan for us, a plan for good and not for evil, a plan to give us a future and a hope. And what a comfort to know that right in the center of that plan is the safest place in the world to be...even if that plan includes stormy days and dark nights. I'm thankful for His very direct, unmistakable leading of our path.

2. I am thankful for special times with friends this week, in person and on the phone....and for friends who can make me laugh even in hard days. "Laughter doeth good like medicine..."

3. I'm thankful for friends who have shared their pool with us this summer....what an oasis that has been in the midst of a hotter-than-usual summer for us, as the AC hasn't behaved at home, in the van, *or* at church. :)

4. I'm thankful for progress...slow that it is...that we are making on our house. *Someday*....

5. I'm thankful for a wealth of books to read!!

6. I'm thankful that, as always, He giveth songs in the night.

"If God would make manifest the fact that 'He giveth songs in the night', He must first make it night." ~William Taylor

7. I'm thankful that we serve a God whose ways are much higher than our ways, and whose thoughts are much higher than our thoughts. I am thankful for His goodness *always.* Even when it doesn't *seem* good. And then again...when it is better than *anything* that we could ask or think.

One of many songs He has given this week:

If You Will Only Let God Guide You

If you will only let God guide you,
And hope in Him through all your ways,
Whatever comes, He'll stand beside you,
To bear you through the evil days;
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the rock that cannot move.

Sing, pray, and swerve not from His ways,
But do your part in conscience true;
Trust His rich promises of grace,
So shall they be fulfilled in you;
God hears the call of those in need,
The souls that trust in Him indeed.

~Georg Neumark

Thanks to Iris, who hosts Thankful Thursdays every week at Sting My Heart!