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Friday, December 08, 2006

 

Darn It, Men Can Be Thankful Too

"A damn'd mob of blogging women." That's a paraphrase of Nathaniel Hawthorne's feelings about women.

I don't feel that way.

But, man, these ladies are blogging fiends. I'm talking about productivity here. How do they do it? Tip of the hat to Camy Tang for leading me to the One Thousand Gifts.

(The only guy I know who even comes close is Scot McKnight. I'm convinced Scot is actually a team of preachers spread across denominations. Scot must be a conspiracy. It's the only explanation for his prolific abilities.)

Have you seen this?


It's sponsored by Christian Women Online. Their expressed purpose is to unite women of faith. That's a good purpose, but I'm not a woman.

Still, I couldn't find any rule that said their One Thousand Gifts project was specifically to unite the women of faith. It seemed to be more inclusive than "Finding the Me in Mommy" or "Scriptural Fruit Cake," for example.

So, I'm going to list One Thousand Gifts, too. Try and stop me.
1. My wife, Amy, who keeps me in line.
2. My daughter, Carroll Jane, who we call CJ and who reminds me to slow down.
3. My son, Lyle, who reminds me to run (the pre-school teachers at our church call him "4 by 4").
4. My dad, the FedEx pilot, who taught me to dream.
5. My mom, who taught me to love.
6. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Wow, am I a bad Christian for not thinking of this until #6?)
7. My friend, Dan. (Who apparently ranks just under Jesus.)
8. In fact, the entire communications department starting with Keith (you're the best, man)
9. And Vicki (she is a Llama farmer!). I can't say how much you all mean to me in #7-9.
10. Oh heck, I can't leave out the development people. Like Perri. She taught me about dispensationalism.
11. And Connie, who gives me chocolate kisses and a poinsetta!
12. And Sherry, who just retired to be with her grandkids full time, but I miss her.
13. Let's see. More people. My sister, Renee, OF COURSE. She lives in San Antonio. And I love her to death. She can't tell a lie.
14. My brother-in-law, Greg, her husband. We had a good time at Laity Lodge. We need to kill each other on the XBox again soon.
15. My other brother-in-law, Rob. Amy's brother. You keep me honest, man. And we can watch slasher flicks together. Cool.
16. And OF COURSE, my blood brother, Nathan. I love you, bro. Enough said.
17. His wife, Tammy, who is still trying to help me understand the perspective of a Southern Belle. I'm trying (and I love you too.)
18. Their wonderful four kids. My daughter can't wait to spend Christmas with you all.
19. My sister's wonderful kid(s). The one that's out and playing with Lyle . . . and the one that's still cooking.
20. The sudden feeling of being overwhelmed by the tremendous blessings of my friends and family and the knowledge that none of them will think I'm ranking people here. This is a stream-of-conscious list.


More later. (If I'm crashing a party by doing this, I'll stop. I just think the idea is too good to limit to one gender, even if they are the fairer sex.)

Comments:
Stop...NOW!!! How dare you intrude on our thankfulness? How dare you even think you can participate! Men!!

Just Kidding! I think that's great. If you want, you could be an honorary "christian woman online." On second thought, never mind:)
 
HA! An honorary woman, that offer gives me pause. I don't think my wife would go for it.

As she says, I'm like every other guy except my interests are a little different. For example, I'll sit on the couch on a Saturday afternoon, a nice cold unmentionable beverage on the coffee table next to me. My wife says something. I nod and smile, too engrossed in the whatever book I'm reading.

Other guys watch football and grunt. I guess I just read and grunt.

(To my credit I don't usually ignore her!)
 
ROFL! I'm sure CWO didn't mean to exclude you. You can't deny that in general, men don't usually indulge in warm fuzzies. My husband usually rolls his eyes at me.

And I have to say that it's been very good for me to come up with 25 new things to be thankful for each day, because once you list things like hugs from the kids and kisses from the spouse, you gotta come up with original material. ;) I think it's made me be more aware of what God does for me each day.

Camy
 
Yeah, Camy, you can see my first twenty are pretty much obligatory and obvious. Family, friends, going out in a wider and wider circle.
 

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