Thank You

So during Lent, as a family, we have been taking part in the 40 acts challenge. …
todays task is to say thank you. So I started to make a list of a few people who I could specifically thank today and it just got out of hand. So I started writing this… (and these are just a few!)…

Mum, Dad, Thank You. Thank you for giving me a Christian grounding in life. Thank you for teaching me to live life to the full. Thank you for taking care of all my needs when I couldn’t. Thank you for putting up with my teenage angst and not chucking me out. Thank you for being an example of good marriage (40 years and counting…). Thank you for helping me when I turned up single and pregnant. Thank you for being amazing grandparents. Thank you for being there.

To my husband. Thank you for putting up with my crazy schemes, for not clipping my wings, for letting me fly even when it terrified you! Thank you for being the calming influence on my craziness. Thank you for our beautiful children. Thank you that you took my daughter on as your own and are an amazing Dad.

To my kids. Thank you for being you. For being part of my life, for every day reminding me how amazingly blessed I am. Thank you for loving me, even when I am grumpy and tired. 

Thank you to Pete, who led my youth group and for the first time in my life fired an interest in Jesus. That has been my grounding, all these years just waiting to be built upon.

Thank you Mr Coulson for being an awesome history teacher. You only taught me for a year but even now I love history !

Thank you to the lovely people who volunteer and run our village cafe, one of the few things that brings the community together. And to our amazing pub Landlords, who have turned the village pub into a wonderful place to have fun with friends, eat delish food and just hang out.

Thank you to Julie. Long standing friend who has always been there for me. She’s seen the ups, the downs, the down right horrid and the celebrations. Thank you for your wisdom, your love, your generosity and your time.

Thanks to the people who have encouraged me in this crazy journey into ministry. Will, James, Philip, Keith, and loads more. Thanks for putting up with the denials, the walking the other way, the anger, and the tears (of which there have been plenty…). Thanks for encouraging me on this path, giving me opportunities, teaching me, correcting me and supporting me. You are all fab!

Thanks to my art college friends who showed me a new way to see life. What totally bonkers times we had! Graham, Sarah, Ollie; college would have been so dull without you…

Village peeps, Leandra, Nikki, Sarah x 4, Anne, Di x 2, Frances, Wendy, Louise, Sarah, Lou, Michelle, and the rest. Thanks for being in my life, for making living here such amazing fun and a joy.

Thanks to the baker who came every Saturday morning as a kid and brought us donuts. Love that memory! Thanks to our neighbours who let us collect eggs from the hens and eat honey fresh from the comb.

Thanks to my brother for being awesome, challenging, loving, a pain in the backside and hanging my teddy from the window, for being a great laugh and fun to be around…

Thanks to whoever invented chocolate. Legend.

and red wine…

Thanks to the milkman and the postman and the dustmen who are smiley and lovely and do their jobs in all weathers!

Thanks to my Nan for awesome recipes

And above all I thank God daily that he wanted to be part of my life.