Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father!<\/p>\n
Last week Lord, I had my annual eye exam as required by Delaware law to renew the prescription for my contact lenses.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been a huge fan of anyone poking around in my eyes, but since I switched to contacts a few years back I\u2019ve become accustomed to the necessary ritual each autumn.\u00a0 This year\u2019s visit however, yielded a bit of a surprise for me.\u00a0 When the examination had been completed, the doctor quietly informed me that she was going to have to write me a different prescription\u2026<\/p>\n
My eyesight has actually gotten stronger.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The doctor explained to me that it wasn\u2019t uncommon for people\u2019s eyesight to vary over the years, but I still feel there\u2019s a parallel here that I shouldn\u2019t ignore nonetheless.\u00a0 My eyesight began to degrade when I was seven years old, requiring me to wear glasses from second grade on.\u00a0 Since that time, I can\u2019t remember even one eye exam where my vision has shown even a minute change for the better.\u00a0 I find it intriguing that while my earthly eyes have become stronger, at the same time I\u2019m seeing Your presence all around me with ever increasing clarity as well.<\/p>\n As Toby Mac stated in the song \u201cLose My Soul\u201d<\/em>;<\/p>\n All eyes are on You Lord\u2026 All eyes are on You.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Thanks for the smile Father.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Picking up where I left off on last week\u2019s Thankful Thursday<\/span><\/em> list Lord, this week I\u2019ve been especially grateful for:<\/p>\n 331. The opportunity I received to minister to a friend in need this week.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 332. A wonderful, inspiring evening\u2019s discussion at this week\u2019s Small Group Gathering<\/a> : \u201cTreasures of the Transformed Life\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 333. A tasty Sunday after-church brunch trying a new recipe : Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 334. Having a weekend with a good bit of \u201cdown-time\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 335. My thoughtful Administrative Assistant bringing me two big bags of Twizzlers for Boss\u2019 Day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 336. The comfort of Your presence when life\u2019s situations begin to overwhelm me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 337. A wonderful photowalk with Jonathan and Aidan in Blackbird State Forest last Sunday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 338. The convictions of the Holy Spirit<\/a> helping me to focus and grow as You desire me to.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 339. A powerful evening of music and worship at the John Waller concert last Thursday night.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 340. A successful first attempt at making homemade calzones this week.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 341. Seeing the Holy Spirit growing in my wife Shannon more and more each day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 342. An eye exam showing that my vision has actually improved slightly.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 343. The opportunity to be a part of Someone Else\u2019s Story<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 344. Connecting with a wide range of inspiring people and organizations through Twitter.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 345. The inspirations You place on my heart each day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n We give thanks Dear Lord, for all the many Blessings You bestow on us each day; both those which boldly announce Your glory, and those that grace our lives in silence.\u00a0 Please open our eyes that we might recognize and praise You for the many gifts you bring to us, and open our hearts that we may share those overwhelming Blessings with those around us.<\/p>\n In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray,<\/p>\n Amen.<\/p>\n ~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![Pin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father! Last week Lord, I had my annual eye exam as required by Delaware law to renew the prescription for my contact lenses.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been a huge fan of anyone poking around in my eyes, but since I switched to contacts a few years back I\u2019ve become accustomed to […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[181,1993,168,419,2014,219,1994,45,27,1000,1237,341,915,375,2012,610,508,635,882,2003,487,2013,196,439,173,42,228,208,276,33,59,427,534,444,140,273,593,916,592,159,401,13,271,269,1982,116,78,104,2016,206,1325,257,576,448,2017,587,572,601,217,41,69,699,609,727,227,732,836,1965,73,117,258,373,584,103,631,40,1034,226,2015,1265,1966,240,49,157,378,379,348,604],"class_list":["post-1491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-aidan","tag-blackbird-state-forest","tag-bless","tag-blessing","tag-change-for-the-better","tag-church","tag-cinnamon-roll-pancakes","tag-clarity","tag-comfort","tag-concert","tag-contact-lenses","tag-conviction","tag-dear-lord","tag-delaware","tag-delaware-law","tag-different","tag-discussion","tag-doctor","tag-down-time","tag-drawing-the-water","tag-earth","tag-eye-exam","tag-eyes","tag-eyesight","tag-father","tag-focus","tag-friend","tag-gift","tag-gifts","tag-glory","tag-grace","tag-grateful","tag-growing","tag-happy","tag-heart","tag-hearts","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-holy-spirit","tag-home","tag-improve","tag-inspiration","tag-inspiring","tag-jesus","tag-john-waller","tag-jonathan","tag-life","tag-light","tag-lose-my-soul","tag-meditation","tag-meditations-monday","tag-music","tag-necessary","tag-overwhelming","tag-overwhelming-blessings","tag-power","tag-powerful","tag-praise","tag-pray","tag-presence","tag-quiet","tag-recognize","tag-remember","tag-rest","tag-shannon","tag-situation","tag-situations","tag-small-group","tag-smile","tag-son","tag-song","tag-special","tag-story","tag-success","tag-sunday","tag-thankful","tag-thankful-thursday","tag-thanks","tag-toby-mac","tag-treasure","tag-treasures-of-the-transformed-life","tag-vision","tag-weekend","tag-wife","tag-wonder","tag-wonderful","tag-word","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Eye-Looking-Up-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-o3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1493,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions\/1493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2F%3Fp%3D1491&media=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F10%2FEye-Looking-Up-1-Cropped.jpg&description=Inspirations+from+Phather+Phil+-+Thankful+Thursday%3A+All+Eyes+Are+On+You\"){kind=link}