Amen. Thank you. Hallejuah.

Sorry for my blogging hiatus. I suppose I have been a mixture of uninspired and busy, a lethal combination. Without further ado, (although, I doubt many of you were sitting on the edge of your seat for my latest musings!) I am writing this blog post after being challenged, during an especially powerful and challenging sermon, to write a thank you letter to God.

God, Father, Abba,

Thank you for adopting me by your grace and mercy as your renewed and won daughter to a kingdom where I should be an unfit resident. However Lord, your love makes me right at home. Thank you for not giving up on my as a lot of earthly parents tend to when I repeatedly make the same mistakes and missteps. Thank you for being just. Thank for condoling me when this world fails me, as it does daily. Thank you for making me feel empty when I try to find justification and fulfillment outside of you, an ache that forces me to unashamedly run into your outstretched arms.  Thank you for your scriptures that sustain me and reveal your goodness and character. Thank you for placing people in my life that hold me accountable; accountable for sinfulness, apathy, and abandoning those same truths. Thank you for forgiving me when I am not a fit example or the salt of this world. Thank you for being the absolute perfect Father and thank you, for restoring my relationship with my earthly one. Thank you for being greater than addictions, greater than suffering, greater still than hurt and hunger and ache and tears. Thank you for love that moves me to drops of gratitude spilling from me uncontrollably. Thank you for the sunrise piercing through my curtains to remind me of the goodness of your creation. Thank you for being the ultimate provider, even when I stumble to realize my plans are not your own. Thank you for praises and thank you for defeats. Thank you for your sage wisdom that looms over my inept abilities. Thank you for choosing me, silly me, ungraceful me, quick-to-anger me. Lord, thank you for being better than I even know and thank you for this life of discovering your goodness. Thank you for a husband that loves me like you love the church and for a family that physically picks me up while you whisper, "sweet daughter, it is finished." Thank you for abounding, overwhelming, and overflowing grace that I simply am unworthy to receive. Thank you for unanswered prayers that really protect me and nudges that remind me of my potential. Thank you for your Great Commission that reminds me with urgency why I am here. Thank you for being worth every single sacrifice and scoff when I murmur that "I am follower of Christ" and God, thank you for making me uncomfortable, so I can have the tiniest of taste of what prosecution feels like. Lord, thank you for freedom to worship you. Thank you for coffee shops where I can seat with my Bible open and fast food restaurants where I can bow my head to pray. Thank you for suffering Lord, even though it hits me deep in my stomach. Thank you for patience that reminds me my tiny, miniscule life is a flash in the scheme of eternity. Thank you for humility that screams, "You are sinful" because Lord, I forget some days when I feel like everything is going my way and the sun seems to shine only for me. Lord, thank you for my friends that have also been adopted by you. Thank you for their eternal lives. Thank you for allowing me to sprint into pools of grace and find comfort of unbeknownst magnitudes. Thank you for being good, so good.

Gratefully yours,

Your Daughter

[Print available at Lara Casey Shop]

I challenge each of you to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. Obviously, your letter does not have to look like mine, but list five things you are thankful for today. I can guarantee it will instantly change your perspective.