What Do We Older Singles Have to be Thankful For?

Here’s my Top 5:

5:         Career

Though I am not satisfied in my career, I am stable.  Stable enough to consciously explore what more I might attempt with my life.  I am clearheaded enough to recognize that my stability at work is determined by how I handle relationships at work, just as much as how I handle the work itself.  I am thankful that I am, finally, becoming stable enough at relationships to be stable at my job.

 4:         Health

Readers, I will confess to you that I turned 40 this year.  For women forty is the year of mammograms, the year when baby-making faculties really begin to shut down, the year when we begin to notice changes in our hair, skin, eyesight and energy level.  I am forty.  And I am thankful that physically (aside from being too fat) I am in excellent health.

 3:         Good women friends

When I was younger all my friends were male.  I prayed and believed that one day I would have women friends.  One day has quietly come.  As I blogged in days gone by, thank goodness for Sex and the City’s Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte for demonstrating to us all the ineffable value of girlfriends in these curious times in which we live.  I am thankful for my girls.

2:         Family (and Boundaries with family)

When I was younger I thought my father was the most brilliant man alive and that my mother was the very image of what a mother should be.  I never acknowledged their humanity, or the pain that they caused me.  Then, for a while, I could only see the pain that they both caused me.  I am thankful that I am finally reaching a place of balance, with respect to my parents and the rest of my family.  I love them and thank God for them, they are only human, they did– and do–their best, wherever they may fail, I forgive them.  I am thankful for the knowledge that the family that I create can be different from the family that created me.

1:         Maturity in the Lord

Somewhere in the last few years I have moved from the position of one who primarily seeks counsel, to one who is able offer counsel; from one who has many questions to one who has a few answers (even/especially with regard to singleness); from ministry worker to ministry leader.

I am truly thankful this year.  What are you thankful for?