Dear Lord; Happy Thankful Thursday Father!<\/p>\n
Well Father, it\u2019s certainly been a little while since I\u2019ve sat down and written to You.\u00a0 And while our conversations haven\u2019t diminished in the least, I have missed bringing the fruits of our time together to the written word.\u00a0 So Lord, when You laid it on my heart today to share this post, it gave me a much needed early-morning smile.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Back in January Father, my family and I attended a viewing at our church of the movie \u201cFacing the Giants\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 It was an absolutely excellent film, filled with inspiring messages and poignant reminders of where our true motivation and priorities should lie.\u00a0 At one point in the movie, a statement was made that really captured my attention, and has stuck with me since\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cGod will send the rain when He\u2019s ready\u2026 You need to prepare your field to receive it.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Such a simple truth Father, and yet one I\u2019ve missed on so many occasions.\u00a0 While I try to recognize Your many Blessings in my life and in the world around me, in many cases I\u2019ve not been proactive in aggressively preparing myself to receive those gifts. \u00a0I want to live my life expecting Your presence at every turn Lord; sowing my seeds in earnest\u2026<\/p>\n Knowing without a doubt that Your Heavenly rain is coming.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Such is my desire Father\u2026 Today and every day.<\/p>\n Continuing to count Your many Blessings in my life Lord; these past weeks have been truly filled with Your Grace, and I\u2019ve been especially grateful for:<\/p>\n 571. Being given 18 wonderful years with my dog Brandy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 572. A marriage that not only has grown us as a couple, but also allows us both to grow as individuals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 573. Bourbon manhattans with a splash of grenadine. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 574. An absolutely beautiful, warm sunny drive into work this morning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 575. Our caring, compassionate veterinarian who made a very difficult situation much easier.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 576. A beautiful Valentine\u2019s Day dinner out with Shannon.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 577. Seeing Your grace powerfully impacting the lives of some good friends.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 578. That no matter what missteps we make or how far we fall, when we come to You we\u2019re welcomed with open arms.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 579. The amazing outpouring of encouragement and concern we received upon Brandy\u2019s passing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 580. A number of significant new jobs this past couple weeks.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 581. A good \u201ccheck up\u201d service on Shannon\u2019s van with no major surprises.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 582. Those people You place in our lives that connect to our hearts in truly powerful ways.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 583. A fun night out with friends last Saturday night.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 584. The view of the world I receive when I look through eyes cleansed by faith<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 585. The healing power contained in the smile of a good friend.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Heavenly Father,<\/p>\n I thank You Lord, for the wondrous gifts You continue to Bless our lives with each and every day; both those that cause the Heavens to ring out in song, and those that whisper Your mighty love quietly from the shadows.<\/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! Well Father, it\u2019s certainly been a little while since I\u2019ve sat down and written to You.\u00a0 And while our conversations haven\u2019t diminished in the least, I have missed bringing the fruits of our time together to the written word.\u00a0 So Lord, when You laid it on my heart today […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2025,"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":[350,851,168,419,12,2731,1243,2727,770,219,1194,809,37,590,425,556,795,2291,43,915,1240,7,2622,361,196,2723,15,4,173,228,24,110,2728,2419,1576,1507,1495,427,457,444,5,273,593,916,2732,47,737,271,1988,2724,269,246,2722,78,133,23,408,506,385,845,380,1258,2725,572,217,2729,69,585,613,699,629,227,796,2730,2517,732,73,117,258,373,736,2342,114,40,1034,1026,2726,1245,563,378,379,371,1498,348],"class_list":["post-2024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-amazing","tag-beautiful","tag-bless","tag-blessing","tag-blessings","tag-blessings-in","tag-brandy","tag-captured-my-attention","tag-caring","tag-church","tag-clean","tag-cleansed","tag-compassion","tag-compassionate","tag-concern","tag-conversation","tag-conversations","tag-conversations-with-god","tag-courage","tag-dear-lord","tag-dog","tag-doubt","tag-encourage","tag-encouragement","tag-eyes","tag-facing-the-giants","tag-faith","tag-family","tag-father","tag-friend","tag-friends","tag-fun","tag-god-will-send-the-rain","tag-gods-gifts","tag-gods-grace","tag-gods-presence","tag-good-friends","tag-grateful","tag-grow","tag-happy","tag-healing","tag-hearts","tag-heavenly","tag-heavenly-father","tag-heavenly-rain","tag-heavens","tag-individual","tag-inspiring","tag-inspiring-message","tag-inspiring-messages","tag-jesus","tag-jobs","tag-laid-on-my-heart","tag-life","tag-love","tag-marriage","tag-missteps","tag-morning","tag-movie","tag-need","tag-outpouring","tag-passing","tag-poignant-reminders","tag-powerful","tag-pray","tag-prepare-your-field","tag-quiet","tag-read","tag-real","tag-recognize","tag-saturday","tag-shannon","tag-significant","tag-simple-truth","tag-sin","tag-situation","tag-smile","tag-son","tag-song","tag-special","tag-statement","tag-strong","tag-thank-you","tag-thankful","tag-thankful-thursday","tag-today-and-every-day","tag-true-motivation","tag-veterinarian","tag-welcomed","tag-wonder","tag-wonderful","tag-wondrous","tag-wondrous-gifts","tag-word"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Raindrops-on-Leaves-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-wE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024","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=2024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2028,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024\/revisions\/2028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2024"}],"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%3D2024&media=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F02%2FRaindrops-on-Leaves-1-Cropped.jpg&description=Thankful+Thursday%3A+God+Will+Send+the+Rain\"){kind=link}