This season of gratitude and thankfulness has me thinking about my own life. People, places, and circumstances swarm my mind as I reflect on this past year. While it’s been a tough year with restrictions, it’s been a continued blessing of extra time together and reminders of focused and concerted efforts to spend time with loved ones.

• Jesus, and the undeserved Grace he ladles over my life over and over
• Space to use my creativity
• A rambunctious 3-year-old who keeps me on my toes
• Being back in a spot we love
• vaccines
• Making new friends who are mamas in the depths of preschooler stage
• Flavored coffee, I love slow mornings with coffee!

What are some things on your thankful list?

As grateful as I am for new things, I’m sure missing some of my friends in my South Arkansas hometown. A group of women who connected with me in ways they don’t know or understand and taught me the power of loving others, giving anyone a chance, reciting God’s Word as TRUTH for life, and just loving others.

I’m talking about the kind of love that gets in the ditches. The kind of love that sees the ugly of life and holds you when you are caught in the muck. The kind of love that allows strangers in your home and serves them in crystal goblets. The kind of love that says you are always welcome at my table and bring a friend if they need a place too.

Have you ever been loved by someone that believes in you?

One blessing that I’ve found is connecting with some friends who are RSAT, Residential Substance Abuse Training program graduates. It is a 90-day incarceration program followed up to 18 months out of jail and back into the real world with new tools to navigate making decisions and self-evaluation.

In getting to know these friends better, I’ve come to understand the power of believing in someone. Local Prosecuting Attorney in Sevier County, Arkansas, Erin Hunter, has been one of those angels, an agent of change and second chances to save lives. And frankly a hero to her local community.

You might say what?? Surely the people building the program and allowing it to occur in the jail are the change agents. And, you wouldn’t be wrong. But, the person making hard decisions and giving an opportunity to criminals and law violators is the one that is making LIFE CHANGING decisions every day.

Erin has to weigh the crimes, victim’s family mindset, community context, and opportunity to change every time she opens a manila file folder. In addition, her heart and compassion must battle with her commitment to the law and preserving the community.

I’m not sure if you will ever read this, Erin, but you are changing the world every single day. I know your life is not easy and you work as hard as anyone I know. But, your belief and chance giving is making a difference. And, I know an armload of people who agree. Thank you for teaching me the value of saying, “yes” when it comes to tough love in the hard parts of life.

As I move into a new town, connect with others, and build community, I’m trying to lift my eyes to “see” people around me. As I pull out of the Walmart parking lot, I know those holding cardboard signs had to overcome a lot to stand there, and it’s not mine to evaluate. I know people who are putting their kids on Angel Tree lists are struggling to survive every day.

And, you know what they all have in common – they need someone to believe in them. Someone to see potential, and not what it just is.

In the days that still linger through this holiday season, I challenge my readers to reflect on your blessings. Resolve to make the world a better place. Reach out to people who have made your life better. Write a letter or pick up a phone and thank someone for being your champion, for believing in you when you didn’t deserve a chance.

Go (she points her finger)….make the phone call!