Credit Where Credit Is Due
Posted: January 21, 2011 at 1:07 pmI owe all of you so much gratitude for the numerous comments, emails, tweets, Facebook notes, etc you have sent out to me this week. Each supportive message on my mothering, positivity, blogging milestones, and more still touches me just as much as my very first comments – from people like Julie, Krys, Janetha, Lisa, Mellissa, Naomi, and Lindsey. With as much thanks as I have for all of you, today I must express my appreciation for someone else. I like to give credit where credit is due, after all.
I want to thank God. I thank him personally every day, but I want to do it publicly here today.
You all commend me on my ability as a mother. It’s not wholly me. It’s Him working through me. I must turn to Him for patience to remain calm when we have our little moments during the day – toddler temper tantrums and some baby gas fussing. I use Him for guidance on how to manage my time to be there for my children as well as my husband and other priorities. I will pray about basically everything when it comes to my family. I know I need Him to get through each day with as much grace and love as possible.
You all congratulated me on FFF reaching its first year and the path it has taken during that time. I 100% could not have done it without God. As many of you realize, blogging is a vulnerable task. It’s putting yourself out there for the world to see. It opens you up to hurtful comments or emails about your life and who you are as a person – like being selfish for continuing to blog with a newborn. True story.
I continue to blog because I truly feel “called” to do it. I believe God gives us passions for a reason and sharing myself here is truly a passion. It humbles me to hear that my stories and musings can inspire, help, or strengthen another. I credit God for giving me the heart and the ideas to continue giving my all here.
You all thank me for sharing so openly and doing things like embracing my body so publicly. Let me just say, posting a picture of yourself in a bikini one week after giving birth is no easy task. It would be easy for me to nitpick away at my body or focus on where I want to physically be in the future. Then, to turn around and put it online instead and feel confident about it?
That strength can only come from one source. I’ve learned how much He loves me. If He loves me how can I deny loving myself and viewing myself as beautiful? That belief is the root of my confidence. That belief pushes me to hopefully bring others to appreciating their bodies more as well.
Today, I publicly say thanks. I have to do the work, but its only possible with Him.
Question of the Day – What do you want to say thank you for today?
Tags: faith
I am totally in awe of you posting a picture of your beautiful self on the internet just a few days after giving birth. Good for you!!!
I’m thankful for having a job. I complain a lot about having had temp jobs for the past nearly 5 years, but I should be thankful that I have employment at all, or else I wouldn’t be able to afford grad school.
Cheers!
I love posts of gratitude! I’d like to say thank you for having a career I love.
I am thankful that my sister’s surgery went fine this morning.
That is great news!
Beautiful! I want to say thank you to my patient husband, my loving mom, my understanding, supportive sisters, my beautiful nieces for making me smile and laugh, and my ability to live life freely everyday and do the things I love. And a big thank you to my readers on my blog as well. Connecting with people is the biggest gift to me. I could go on and on with what I’m thankful for these days. 🙂
Hope you have a wonderful Friday!
Amen, sister!
I am thankful for the strength that I feel growing inside of me. Every way I wake up and problems in my life seem a little more clearer.
I’m thankful for my friends and family who believe in me even when I don’t believe in myself.
Such a great and positive post ; )
Your welcome girl ; )
I am thankful for every day that I wake up , for family, my fiance, my friends, my health and loved ones health, friends health, and I am very thankful to have started blogging and connect with amazing people like you !
Thank you for having such an awesome blog who is true to herself!! I am thankful for having two beautiful babies and a wonderful husband, a secure job, and my health! 🙂
Beautiful.You are one grounded person. Truly.
Just wanted to say THANK YOU LORD for all my family and support, my job, my church, my wonderful husband and my kitty Noel. Thank you for SAVING ME on an old rugged cross thousands of years ago! And thank you for this sweet family who I love reading about on faith fitness and fun!!
AMEN! 🙂
It’s all so true. I culd never get through my day without His grace.
Beautiful- I love when a simple blog post reminds me of the most important things in life. Sometimes in the midst of all the day-to-day craziness, it’s hard to remember all the blessings in my life, but there are SO many. Today I’m most thankful for my dad- he’s driving my brother and his wife to the airport tomorrow, then coming straight home and making the 6 hour round trip drive to New York with me. He’s awesome 🙂
You are absolutely right. God is the one powering each of us through our days. We are nothing without Him. Today I am thankful for a job where I can reflect His love into the lives of children.
So true. I love blogging but it’s God who started me on it in the first place, and God who has helped me enjoy it, and God who has kept me from getting my identity wrapped up in it (or correcting me when it has).
Gosh, I don’t even know where to begin! I am so thankful for my husband, my boys, our health, my in laws, the friends I have made this past year…I could go on and on. This year is all about focusing on the good in my life! I am glad you are feeling so blessed!
Love this. You’re right – He is working through you and it’s amazing and so inspirational and uplifting to see.
Beautiful post. You are so beautiful, both inside and out!
Yay! I am thankful for my best friends and my sister and my boyfriend and California and hope (REALLLLLY thankful for hope), love, kindness, dancing, etcetcetc! There is so much for which to be grateful.
amen to that! God definitely has called you into this. Its your passion and you are glorifying him through it. Just beautiful!
I love thi post…and I have to say I am so thankful to God for my husband….he is having to put up with a lot from me these days and he does it with love and patience and a sense of humor. Thank God for him!
That makes a world of difference too! 🙂
I just wrote a blog post around a quote I found on your blog. So my thank you goes to YOU for leading me to inspiring thoughts! (and congrats on the jeans!!)
Thank YOU for FFF! I’m also thankful for all the blog friends I’ve ‘met’ over the past year, some of which I get to see tomorrow! 😀
Great post Tina! I think its very important to remind yourself who’s behind it all…
I love this Tina! 😀
I am very thankful for my family, friends, and of course, God. Even though I may have had a rocky relationship with Him, he is always there and does not judge.
Amen. What a beautiful post. Today, as most days, I am especially thankful to God for creating an amazing man just for me. When I look at him, I know God loves me. And I always want to thank Him for only giving me what I can handle. No matter what obstacles come my way, I know that I can overcome them because I have God on my side.
Thank you for this post!! I need to be grateful to God more often. I know he has guided my life and helped me to become a better person!!
Thank you for sharing your faith. It is such an encouragement to see other Christians out in the blog world. I loved reading this post. 🙂
You are amazing and SO humble, Tina. A wonderful reminder that we should praise God for all of the blessings in our life (and I am right now)! I think, for me, I’ve gotten into the habit of only turning to God when I “need” Him – in other words, when something has gone bad. But really, I know I need Him ALL the time. In good times AND bad!
Today I am incredibly thankful for getting a job interview next week. It’s at least somethin’!
I had to learn the same thing and I’m still learning it. He is there all the time. We need Him all the time. And life is better when we focus on Him all the time. 🙂
I’d like to say thanks today for unexpectedly being recognized for something at work. It was so unexpected and it really just made me so happy and thankful.
awesome post. Sometimes I forget that its not ME doing this and achieving that, it is God working through me ALLOWING me to do great things!
🙂 You are awesome .. your love for God is so encouraging
I am continually impressed by your courage to open up on this blog. And posts like this one always remind me of the benefits of blogging despite the multiple times I’ve questioned if I should just stop. And seriously someone told you blogging with a newborn is selfish?? Have they read any of your other posts on how you live your life? Couldn’t be further from the truth!
I’m so thankful to God for giving me the courage and determination to go after what I truly want.
Amen! And you deserve it!
You’re exactly right. We have passions for a purpose! Praise the Lord for helping us see where our strengths and passions lie.
You are right on! I always try to be so thankful to God for all the great things in my life, but I guess I never publicly say it so much. Thanks God and also thank you for Tina being able to bring us FFF!
Amen! I am thankful for my husband and children. I am thankful for our health. I am so thankful that I can be home with my children, and I am thankful for our homeschool group. So very much to be thankful for.
I grew up with this saying, “God made me, and he doesn’t make junk.” I still like it. If we could see ourselves, and everyone else, as God’s precious creation, wouldn’t it make us more appreciative and perhaps more gracious?
Wow, that quote is EXACTLY what I need to see at this time in my life. So I want to thank you for putting it up there.
You go girl, I wouldnt have the guts to post a pic of me!
I just wanted to say thanks so much for this post. I have never commented, but I’ve been having a really tough few weeks and really needed this reminder about what really matters most in life. So thankful that god has a plan for us even when we feel like things will never be okay!
Glad this post helped encourage you. It’s wonderful how God works, huh? And He certainly does have a plan. I know how hard it can be to trust sometimes though. Hope you have a great night and weekend!
Seriously, thank you so much for this post. I hate to admit how afraid I am of my post baby body and I’m not even trying yet! I think a lot of that fear is the unknown I truly appreciate have a resource like you to learn about the realities of babies and their effects on your body.
I’m thankful I have the best friends and homemade family by my side through thick and thin. My life is so full of love and glorious friendship!
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your posts never fail to inspire me! i want to thank YOU for that. and i also want to thank the packers for winning, so i can have 2 more weeks of a happy husband.
Haha! A happy husband is important. 🙂