2011 The Cheer Year - Letter 1

I'm really not much for making New Year's resolutions I suppose mostly because I usually fail to follow through and then I feel "bad" about my lack of achievement.  So about a month ago I was pondering some things that I wanted to do this coming year and the thought of being thankful for the people who have influenced my life cross my mind.  Rather than making this a New Year's Resolution, I am making 2011 my "Cheer Year".   It'll be my theme throughout this year and during any given day I'm going to write a letter to someone from my past or present that I truly appreciate.  I may do it five days in a row or I may do one letter a month!   Child advocate, Marian Wright Edelman writes: “So often we dwell on the things that seem impossible rather than on the things that are possible. So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.”   So, this year I'm looking back and saying "thank you." 

My thank yous are in no certain order, just what's in my heart on a given day and today I want to say "thank you" to the one I have lived for nearly 30 years, my wonderful husband, James Stewart Wade!  Do you remember the first time we saw one another? It was at college in the fall of 1978 at an afternoon Sunday School program for intercity kids.  I was assigned to help you on my first day there.  It was a chaotic setting; we weren't even introduced, just thrown in together; seemed like over 20 little kids in our tiny room running wild.  I don't remember anything that you taught or said to the kids except one of the little boys tackled me down to the ground.  He wanted to kiss me and he just about accomplished his little feat except for you pulling him off of me and apologizing up and down that this had happened on my first day to help.   I was taken by your green eyes and good looks from that first day til now.   My mother had told me before I went off to college, "I don't care who you marry, but please don't marry a pastor or a missionary because you'll be poor all your life!"  I remember the day I called her and said I wanted to bring home someone special, and "oh, by the way, he wants to be a pastor!"  My family loved you from the start!  This is suppose to be a "thank-you" and not a historical review of our years together so let me move to what I'm thankful for!  Thank you for your obedience to the calling upon your life that you felt at 18 and that is to shepherd people.  It's a calling that is sacrificial from many aspects but so rewarding to be in service for our Great God!  It's what drew me towards you from the start and continues almost 30 years later.  Thank you for your leadership in our marriage and in our family.  Lest someone thinks our lives are perfect and you lead and I always follow, we both know that our marriage is a journey and sometimes a struggle, but so grateful that even in our struggles we can both lay aside our rights and do what is honoring before our God.  Thank you for taking me to the "edge of the cliff" at times!  Can't believe I'm thanking you for that but we both know that I like to live "safely" and "securely" like most women so jumping off a cliff isn't something that I do easily!  Your leadership abilities that God has bestowed on you give you that edge of "seeing" things beyond what is possible (I think that's called "vision!") and sometimes I just need to hold your hand and close my eyes and I'm thankful that you don't do this often!  There are so many other things that I could thank you for -- you're a great dad to our kids!  Let me just conclude by saying "thank you" for loving me.  You love me unconditionally, and that's truly a reflection of how God loves me.  I never have to doubt your love or wonder if it will last.  By God's grace, with committment to each other and remembering our vows, I will love you til death do us part.  I am thankful to our Great God for allowing me to be Mrs. Wade.  Lovingly yours, Patty