Getting Colder

We took the day off today because we will likely be working a tile job on Saturday. We went to Amarillo to help pick up the tile and to run some errands. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will be able to gets lots of work done on this job tomorrow and won't have to work on Saturday. However, there is a seventy percent chance for rain tonight and tomorrow morning, and a high of 46 tomorrow. This will make it a bit harder to lay tile outside on a concrete porch. 

It's amazing to me that we are already half way through November (well, almost). This year has flown by for me. When we first moved here to work for awhile, Kathy and I talked about it like it was temporary. We thought after six months to a year God would have us somewhere else. Now here we are a year later, and it is starting to get cold again. I never used to mind the cold too much. You know - wear a heavy coat from the car to work, the store, the house, etc. But now that I work outdoors fairly often (not as often in the cold months but still occasionally), I notice when it starts getting colder a lot faster. This is no longer feeling like nice fall weather. The air has more of a bite to it, and I am waking up with my skin feeling dry and itchy. 

So in the vein of remaining thankful, here are a few things I appreciate about colder weather...

• Cold weather food-Soups, stew, chili, cornbread. I love so many entrées that simply don't taste as good in warm weather. 
• The holidays-Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. When the weather turns from cool to cold, it puts me in the mood for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Good food, family, presents, and most of all a time of remembering Jesus coming down and wrapping Himself in our skin to pay the price for our folly. 
• I have been listening to Christmas music for well on a month now. I am planning to try and put up our Christmas tree this weekend sometime.
• Fires in the fireplace-Now if only I had a fireplace...I guess the fake one I have on dvd will have to do for this year. 

I forgot one other thing I was thankful for on my previous thankfulness post...I am thankful for something my pastor told me a couple of weeks ago after the Men's Bible Study. We were joking about whether or not the Dallas Cowboys had a chance (this was several weeks ago when they still had a chance) and I jokingly said how angry I got watching the games. I meant frustrated, but he took me literally and replied, "Oh, I like football well enough, and I pretend to care occasionally, but it doesn't make me angry. The thing that makes me angry is that there are people in the world dying without Jesus in their lives, and we sit around getting frustrated at football games." (this is not an exact quote, but it was something along these lines.) I didn't reply, but as i thought about it, I realized that he was right. Why should we get so upset at a game yet not care whether or not our neighbor across the street is going to heaven when they die. It kind of puts things into perspective. Football is only football. Jesus didn't come to save it. He came to save those of us who watch or ignore it. Let's get our priorities straight...