A Few Reasons for Thankfulness

My apologies for the dearth of blog posts lately.  I have been busy with Beloved-but-Expensive Daughter’s graduation from college and with starting a new job – one which I expect to work me half to death but with which I am likely to be much happier.  In lieu of more substantive topics, let me just offer thanksgiving for the following events and milestones:

For Beloved-but-Expensive Daughter:  Thanks be to God for her graduation -  summa, by the way - from a US News & World Report top-rated school with a double major in psychology and religion.    Humble man that I am, you will notice that I avoid taking any pride in her accomplishments.  BBED and her two roommates represented 15% of the total number of summa-cum-laudes in her graduating class.  Not too shabby.

For Hilary:  Thanks be to God, not only on her receiving her Master’s from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, but on doing so and managing to keep her faith in the process!  Many a once-faithful soul has wrecked on the treacherous reefs of a “modern” theological education.

And also, thanks be to God for her new job as youth minister at a fairly large local Protestant congregation; I am certain many young lives will be blessed through her ministry.

For Caitlyn:  Thanks be to God for her high school graduation, and her college acceptance.  

For Carl:  Thanks be to God for his making it through the graduations of both the females in his household!

For S and D:  Thanks be to God for their upcoming 25th anniversary as well as their upcoming (Orthodox, with crowns and all!) renewal of vows.

For myself and my long-suffering wife, I can’t believe it will be 33 years in less than a month.  You are either a saint, my dear, or a masochist.  Thanks be to God that you are a person of strong character, and were such a poor judge of mine.

Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD!
Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised!
The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!
Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!  (Psa 113:1-9, RSV)