{"id":1727,"date":"2011-12-08T18:46:39","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T22:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1727"},"modified":"2011-12-08T18:46:39","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T22:46:39","slug":"thankful-thursday-marys-plan-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=1727","title":{"rendered":"Thankful Thursday: Mary’s “Plan B”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father!<\/p>\n

As You know Father, for the past several weeks our Tuesday night study group has been working through a DVD Book Study based on Pastor Pete Wilson<\/a>\u2019s book : \u201cPlan B: What do you do when God doesn\u2019t show up the way you thought He would\u201d<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0 I\u2019d read the book earlier this year and very much enjoyed it, so when the time came to choose a new study, I was quite pleased that everyone agreed to pursue \u201cPlan B\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 As of this week, we\u2019ve completed three sessions of the study and so far it\u2019s been an inspiring and encouraging examination of how even in the midst of seemingly hopeless situations, You perform some of Your most powerful work in us.<\/p>\n

As I was thinking today on some of the things we\u2019ve been discussing in the group these past few weeks, it dawned on me that Christmas itself is the celebration of Mary and Joseph\u2019s \u201cPlan B\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 Before being visited by the Angel Gabriel, Mary\u2019s life was proceeding along a fairly normal path.\u00a0 She\u2019d become betrothed to a man named Joseph, and was very likely planning for her role as his wife, and the future mother of their children.<\/p>\n

And in a moment, her world turned upside down…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And our world was forever changed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Her \u201cPlan B\u201d was Your \u201cPlan A\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This hammers home a very important point Father; in the midst of those situations where our lives seem to be flying desperately off course, You\u2019re not shaken or confused.\u00a0 What we view as turmoil, You see as opportunity\u2026<\/p>\n

May we all seize those opportunities Father; embracing the understanding that our \u201cPlan B\u201d moments, were Your \u201cPlan A\u201ds all along.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And now Lord, on to this week\u2019s Thankful Thursday<\/span><\/em> list!\u00a0 This past week has been simply overflowing with Your Blessings Father, but I\u2019d like to give special thanks for:<\/p>\n

421. Having friends that pray for me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

422. Getting to spend much of the day Saturday cooking for family and friends.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

423. A quick healing for the eye I scratched.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

424. Some helpful advice from a friend that helped get the Jaguar running again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

425. New glasses for Jonathan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

426. That the Rimadyl is making an obvious improvement in Brandy\u2019s pain level.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

427. Having friends that can tell when I\u2019m having a rough time, and pushing through my \u201cwall\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

428. A quiet walk in Blackbird State Forest with Jonathan last Sunday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

429. That even though I fall short in so many ways, You know my heart and guide me ahead.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

430. Candy Cane Hershey\u2019s Kisses.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

431. Real kisses from my loving wife.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

432. The Kids Construction Workshops at Home Depot.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

433. Seeing my children reach out with giving hearts.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

434. Knowing that I\u2019m Your Beloved Child.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

435. Having a full collection of inspiring Christmas Music to play on my iPod during the day.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And so much more Lord.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n

We thank You Lord, for the many Blessings you bestow on us each day; both those that announce Your presence like sirens in the night, and those that grace our lives in Stillness.<\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 Name we pray,<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father! As You know Father, for the past several weeks our Tuesday night study group has been working through a DVD Book Study based on Pastor Pete Wilson\u2019s book : \u201cPlan B: What do you do when God doesn\u2019t show up the way you thought He would\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019d read the […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1728,"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":[2295,1993,168,419,12,1243,296,132,321,2240,266,915,602,4,939,173,228,769,966,2294,59,686,444,5,140,273,593,916,180,159,464,121,401,271,269,116,2292,222,190,133,422,96,1079,2211,203,230,257,670,392,19,1060,2293,1062,813,587,572,217,41,69,629,2103,732,836,1965,1917,117,373,66,631,114,40,1034,226,106,697,300,1019,481,1096,138,454],"class_list":["post-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-angel","tag-blackbird-state-forest","tag-bless","tag-blessing","tag-blessings","tag-brandy","tag-celebration","tag-children","tag-christ","tag-christ-child","tag-christmas","tag-dear-lord","tag-discussing","tag-family","tag-family-and-friends","tag-father","tag-friend","tag-giving","tag-god","tag-gods-plan-a","tag-grace","tag-guide","tag-happy","tag-healing","tag-heart","tag-hearts","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-helpful","tag-home","tag-hope","tag-illness","tag-improve","tag-inspiring","tag-jesus","tag-jonathan","tag-joseph","tag-joy","tag-kids","tag-love","tag-loved","tag-loving","tag-loving-wife","tag-mary","tag-moments","tag-mother","tag-music","tag-night","tag-obvious","tag-pain","tag-pete-wilson","tag-plan-a","tag-plan-b","tag-planning","tag-power","tag-powerful","tag-pray","tag-presence","tag-quiet","tag-saturday","tag-shaken","tag-situation","tag-situations","tag-small-group","tag-small-group-study","tag-son","tag-special","tag-stillness","tag-sunday","tag-thank-you","tag-thankful","tag-thankful-thursday","tag-thanks","tag-turmoil","tag-understand","tag-understanding","tag-used","tag-week","tag-withoutwax-tv","tag-work","tag-works"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Plan-B-Invite-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-rR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","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=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1730,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}