Let me count the ways...

Thanksgiving day was our 4th anniversary. We were with his family and this year they decided to go to the beach so I didn't get to post this earlier. Blogging has been slow around here anyway due to said Christmas production in previous post, but I didn't want this one to slip by. Too important.

I always have so much to be grateful for. I feel like God pours down buckets of blessings on us constantly, and so I'm a big fan lately of cultivating thankfulness in my heart...to both praise God for his mercy that I certainly don't deserve and also to keep my heart from becoming prideful and numb to how staggeringly good He is to his children.

That being said, this year it seems even more real how sweet God is to me as I think about the last 4 years of being Josh's wife. And though this list is far from complete, I want to try to capture some of why I'm so grateful for my precious husband.

--He has one of the most tender hearts I've ever known.
--He's gentle with me.
--He has eyes like two gorgeous little oceans and gave me a son with the same eyes.
--He can play the sax, the flute and the clarinet....like really play them.
--He makes me laugh at myself at the most inconvenient times (like when I'm really mad or crying).
--He truly has a heart for the Lord and makes me want to know Him better too.
--His love for digging deep into the Word is contagious.
--His love for theology translates into how he lives...it's not just knowledge.
--For as long as I've known him (10 1/2 years) he's had strong accountability from another man.
--He loves his momma!
--He's a cuddler (even more than me!)
--He still loves Tom and Jerry, The Little Rascals and Charlie Brown.
--He can fit a whole cheeseburger in his mouth....and a double decker moon pie (see pic).
--He fights hard to grow in areas he's weak in and asks for help from others all the time.
--He loves his little boy SO much (and that little boy loves his daddy SO much)!
--He comes home from a long day of teaching 12 yr olds math and wrestling to a frazzled wife and immediately asks, "How can I help you, baby? Here, I'll do it...go sit down."
--He genuinely loves jazz and can give anyone a passionate discertation on why Kenny G is not jazz.
--He loves my family dearly and they know that.
--When Wanda (the custodian who cleans his room) called the school yesterday to say that her father had just passed away, she only wanted to talk to Josh...he stepped out into the hall and prayed with her on the phone.
--He is quite possibly the most compassionate person I have ever met.
--His students love him.
--He was a great friend to me for 5 yrs before we started dating and pushed me toward Christ even then.
--He has proven his character to me time and time again.
--He dresses well.
--He helped me endure 6 yrs of the music dept in college....it was intense.
--He understands that my hair gets frizzy in the rain so he walks me everywhere with an umbrella while getting drenched himself.
--He works hard at our marriage.
--He's almost always the first to reconcile an argument.
--His southern drawl increases 10 fold when we go to his parent's house.
--He sings the theme song from King of Queens to me everytime he hears it.
--He shares my heart for the nations and has gone to several of them with me.
--He's gracious in helping me deal with my sin.
--I really could keep going!