A Few of My Favorite Things, Number 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19

13. Hot water!

Once you have to go through a time when you have only ice cold water you become very thankful for water heaters. Having a warm shower, defrosting things in the sink, and everything else you use hot water from the pipes is a huge blessing I have!

14. Music!

We get lectured about not listening to secular music and are always talking about how "bad" songs are and we often forget that God created music as a form of worship! Music lifts us up, it has a certain "power" that most can't understand why it does. Being able to put on a worship CD and feel the comfort in the words and to sing to God about His love and our love for Him is an amazing gift that God created for us all to enjoy and to share with Him.

15. Pudding!

Yes, I am going to put pudding on the list. Why? Because I am thankful for pudding! It's delicious and why not thank God for it? We should thank God for everything, so I am going to thank God for one of my favorite snacks, pudding!

16. Smells!

Being able to smell all the wonderful things God created is so awesome! Spices, flowers, food, candles, the ocean, and everything else has a smell and I find this to be so amazing! Smell makes things taste better and appeal to us more and is an amazing gift we have with our bodies!

17. Orchids!

Orchids are one of my favorite types of flowers! Something about them is just so beautiful to me so I have to thank God for creating this beautiful flower!

18. The Bible!

Gods amazing love letter and testament to us is a HUGE gift! And I am so lucky to have access to one. There are so many places around the world where people cannot have bibles, so I thank God that I am able to have one.

19. A house!

To have a home to protect me and keep me warm and safe is one of the biggest blessings I have! I thank God so much for giving me the blessing of a house! And I can't imagine how hard it is for people without one. I have such a longing in my heart to help families with no home so that I can give this blessing I have to them as well.

A Few of My Favorite Things, Number 1

A little random, but so am I after all, I want to talk about optimism!

Being optimistic by always trusting in God and seeing things in a bright way is a thing I've been trying to work on for a long time. Some call it "spiritual optimism" or just plain Joy. In my opinion being joyful isn't being happy and things always turning out right but seeing the good and the God in every situation. It's not letting yourself get down in the hardest times, not just smiling like a Barbie doll twenty-four seven. And to me it's also thinking of the good things God has blessed you with in your life everyday. So as a sort of side project I want to start posting new things named after one of my favorite songs, "My Favorite Things."

I want this to be a way of thanking God everyday and I want to post at least one a day what something physical, spiritual, or emotional that is one of my favorite things. I think this will help me in being more optimistic and focusing on the good things in life!

I'm not doing this in an order of best to least or anything, just what pops in my head that day. So today will be number one.

1. When an old memory of something good randomly pops into my head.

I love when I am just sitting somewhere or absorbed in something and a funny and happy old memory pops into my head. It makes me smile a little, even on one of my worst days, to think of when whatever it was happened. Sometimes I randomly smile or laugh and people think I'm a little crazy or that I saw something funny just then, but in reality I had just thought of something that happened either just a little while ago or even years ago. And I have to thank God for having those memories and for me to be able to keep them and be reminded of them!

-Keeping the Faith,

C.A.M

(p.s. I suggest other people make list like this, it really helps to keep your spirit up)