A Voice of Thanksgiving

Psalm 26:7 that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, a day to reflect on things that we are thankful for. This year I am thankful for an abundance of things...I will try to list some of them here.

Tamara Jones is thankful for...

My Lord and Savior, who saw fit to save me. Save me from hell, save me from myself, save me from this world. He has seen fit to provide for us this past year while my husband has been unemployed. He has seen fit to save us from a house fire that took all our earthly possessions away. He has been gracious and allowed me to grow in His wisdom and love.

My Family

My Preacher, who has saw me at my worst, but still helped me to become a stronger Christian.

My Church

My Friends

My Box (because many people do not even have a box)

My Dogs, who have been so good to me!

My cars, which have chose to stay running (and are now both paid off)

My Breath

My Health

Green Grass, Wind, the Cold Weather that is finally deciding to come

Shoes, and hair bows, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hair brush and comb

Water, electricity, hot water and non generator electricity

Fire and water proof boxes that saved some of my pictures from the fire

Fireman who worked all day to save as much of my possessions as possible, including pictures and dogs

Generous people who took time from their busy lives to make sure that we were okay and brought us food, plastic ware, towels, money etc when we did not have anything

Thanks be to God for the great things He has provided!

Looks like a house to me...

Since my last post, our house has really came together to look like a house again. The drywall has been put up, mudded, sanded, re-mudded, re sanded, re-mudded and re sanded for the third time. Then, they sprayed the ceiling with "knock down" which I love. On Thursday the painter came in a sprayed everything white. It looks very clean (compared to all the black soot colors that we had seen).

To keep on schedule, we need the trim work done by Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The 30th brings in the electrician, plumber and heating and air guys. The 7th brings our floors in, and the 14th brings the final paint jobs. Somewhere in all of this, our kitchen cabinets will be installed and appliances brought in. We are trying to be ready for furniture delivery around the 18th.

Everything is so close, that without God it will not all come together. But, miracles do happen and I am praying that I can at least sleep in my house by Christmas Eve. God is good!

I LOVE DRYWALL......

I walked through my house Friday almost in tears. Why, you say? DRYWALL!! Ever saw a girl cry over drywall? It was funny, I was so excited, we have rooms now. Walls and rooms and it looks like a house again. Next week they will tape and mud it, and we have already picked out all of paint colors.

The contractor has been saying he hopes to have me in the house by Christmas. I am standing on my faith! God is so good, He can make anything happen.

Consumed by the Fire

Sometimes I think that all I think or talk about is the house. Whether it be the fire, the camper, the rebuilding, I feel like it's consumed me whole. I do not think that it is all bad, the Lord has taught me some valuable lessons through this trial that I know will and has made me a better Christian. In the near future, I will have my house back with a renewed sense of courage and love to be able to fight the next battle thrown at me! I will have a stronger family, because we have made it through this trial and done so with more love for each other than we had before the fire. And I will have the knowledge that God loves me so much that He notices that I need Him still, even when I thought I could live life on my own.

Sunday at church I felt led to pray a prayer of thanks to God for letting my house burn down. Doesn't that sound crazy? Preacher Glover says that is Christian growth. I hate that it took me 4 months to get to that point, but God works in His time, not mine. It was a strange sensation to thank Him for something that in the beginning I thought would break me. In those first moments after hearing the fireman tell us over the phone that our house was gone, I really thought, "HOW AM I GOING TO LIVE THROUGH THIS? What is going to happen to my family, did my dogs make it, oh no, all my pictures, my Papa stuff." Four months later, I can still feel the pain in the pit of my stomach that I experienced that day. However, there is no dwelling on it, just a remembrance. Now I know that God let that fire put me at a level that I needed to be, lower, lower, lower, so low that I had to reach up for HIM and HIM alone. Reach up and say God, help me, help me to be strong for my family, help me to live more for you, just help me be the way You want me to be not the way I want to be.

I am so thankful for Him. So thankful that God looks down on this huge planet called earth and narrows his gaze to a little part of Rutherfordton and sees me. That He sees that I need Him and then lets me know that He is always here for me!