30 Days of Thankful--Days 16 & 17

Okay, I didn't skip Day 15, I just posted it as a Facebook message that indicated I wasn't publishing my ranting blog about The Husband's crazy relative, so, I said I was thankful for self control. Ahem.

Day 16-17 are another combo, so I saved it.

Today, I am thankful for Anticipation.

(Get it? You had to wait a day to get to the blog of thankfulness? :-) Okay, so maybe I was the only one anticipating it, but it's still funny.)

I'm anticipating the new Twilight Saga movie, Breaking Dawn so much that I can't breathe. Every time that the previews come on the TV, my mother, myself, and the Wonder Twins begin screaming the second the reel stops playing. We are anticipating it so very much that I've pre-ordered tickets, and if I didn't live an hour (literally) from the theater, I'd have been at the midnight showing tonight.

There is something about being excited about an event that is the embodiment of Happy. It crosses your mind and you smile. You daydream it. You are giddy for no apparent reason. We anticipate all sorts of things like big vacations and weddings and first dates and first kisses. We wait and plan and get wound up about small things like a trip to the beauty shop and ice cream sundaes after dinner and back-to-school clothes shopping. It's a tiny rush.

The key to a life lived and a life well-lived is anticipating the right things. See, I'm really, really, REALLY excited about going to Breaking Dawn--I mean breathing hard excited--but I've got many more important things that I anticipate every day:

• Tonight I'm teaching the Youth Bible Study, and I can't wait to see them and hear them and be near them! How cool is it that I get to teach youth?
• I'm taking my mother and E-squared (shhhh...they don't know yet) to see Breaking Dawn on Friday (I even have our tickets!) and getting to go with good friends who share my obsession! And there's going to be POPCORN! Whoot! (Sometimes, it's the little things.)
• I'm going to the first home basketball game on Friday, and I am going to cheer on the entire high school until I am hoarse and they threaten to eject me from the game. Cool!!
• I'm going to a wedding on Saturday, which means that two people fell in love and are taking vows before God the Father. Go Marriage!
• Sunday I get the privilege of going to an adoption celebration for a family who are adopting, proving that God is still in the business of answering prayer! Go God!

Instead of moaning about how busy we are going to be, I want to be the kind of person who is constantly anticipating the next movement of God in my life. And as a Christian, the biggest thing that I'm anticipating is the return of Jesus Christ. We sometimes get so busy doing "stuff" that we forget that we are wired for anticipation by our very design. How cool is that? So, what are you anticipating or is your life one dreaded thing after another? Maybe it's time to re-evaluate. :-)

Luke 12 ³⁵ “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. ³⁸ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. ³⁹ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰ You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”