Thankful Thursday #230

"Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that His kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" ~Romans 2:4

Today, I am thankful for...

1. Dr. Burkhart's encouragement, and his willingness to meet with me regularly, and him preparing and bringing several great book recommendations... all of which I fully intend to read, so yay!!

2.  Walk-breaks at work... I'm grateful to be at a job where that is allowed and modeled, and in a cooler fall season where it's becoming more enjoyable again!

3.  Good connections with clients lately... seeing them grow feels exciting, and I love being in a role that strengthens and encourages that!  Krystal had me lead our supervision group this week to practice Written Exposure Therapy, which I'm excited to try with clients moving forward!

4.  The arrival of September and cooler weather and a school break week all = lovely de-stressors for me! 

5.  This reminder.  I haven't been in the best headspace over the past month, but I prayed through a lot of shame last night.  Even as a "trained therapist" who is supposed to know all the best tools for this kind of stuff, I need God's help soooo continually with renewing my mindset and the way I see myself!  ...Fortunately, He is willing and ready to help us whenever we call on Him. ❤

6.  This #cakefail memory from Rachel's 30th birthday, which is honestly even funnier to me now that I understand what we were actually missing.  Perhaps God was behind the earl-grey-cake-with-lavender-icing mishap, because I wasn't about to try the Laurannae bakery based on that, and it's probably for the best that I didn't know about their exceptional brides cake when I lived closer to it! lol

7.  One year ago, I was seeking healing in therapy after a major shift I did not see coming.  That was a turning point where I held on to my own strength in a new way, recognizing bad patterns, carefully approaching important conversations, praying for wisdom and clarity, and allowing a relationship to be broken/remixed without it breaking me (not internalizing negative messages or personalizing the loss).  So today, I am grateful for personal growth, for all the "keep going" memes, and for T-Swift's reminder that we can "come back stronger than a '90s trend!" ;-)

Bonus:  I am thankful for The Gilded Age, which I'm currently binge-watching during this short school break!  Loving the Russell fam... "Defeat is not your color."  So good, and pretty perfect timing to get me even more excited about visiting NYC next weekend!! 

❤ ❤ ❤