Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 118:1

I realize that this verse can be found all over Psalms and other parts of the Bible too.  On my drive up to LA, I was thinking about what I was thankful for.  And I’ve often thought about it and it always brings me back to the friendships I have now down in SD and the church family I have there. I’ve probably written about this before but it really means a lot to me.

When I think back to life in SD a few years ago, that was when most of the core of my friends had started to leave.  Friends, having community, is a really really big deal to me.  I need to have these people around me.  The people that I can hang out with, talk to, and care about, etc.  As I slowly saw my friends move away, I was really sad.  Sometimes I’d even feel super distraught.  I mean it used to be a group of people and slowly the group chipped away – from maybe 6 or 7 down to 3 and then to 2.  And I felt really sad, the amount of people to hang out with just kind of disappeared.

But then I found CBC, joined the football team, got involved, and now have a great group of friends that I am so thankful for.  I love hanging out with these people.  I love spontaneous dinners and boba runs.  Late night chats.  I love it.

The more I look back at the last few months and years, the more I realize how wonderfully God had things planned.  As my college friends started to move away, I slowly began to find more new friends at CBC.  Even at the beginning of CBC, I never really hung out with people.  But I started to get to know more about people and eventually become friends which really prepped me when I found out my best friend was going to move to China.  Then, A. who I had become really good friends with, had to move away a few months ago too.  I hung out with her a lot and was pretty sad when she moved.  But then I started to hang out more with K. D. A. G. E. S. and so on and so forth.  So as sad as I am with good friends that have moved afar, I am grateful that I can still talk with them and still have a really great group of people to hang out with.  I am more thankful for my friends than I can probably ever express verbally.

So this thanksgiving, I’m thankful that God has put these people in my life.  Thank you God.  God is good.  :)