I Feel Good

What makes you feel good? (Occasions, food, people, etc.)

So I'm back again with a love letter to the kiddos (at least that is what I'm calling it). This is a good question too about what makes me fool good. Let's see if I can give a good answer to it.

So what is there that makes me feel good? I would say that there are lots of things that can do it. There are occasions that do it, there are some foods that do it, and there are for sure some people that do it. Let's see if we can hit at least those three things and then see what happens.

1) Occasions- There are a few occasions that make me feel good it seems. One is my anniversary. It makes me feel good to know that Roni and I have been blessed with our years of marriage. It makes me feel good to know that there is consistency there. Another occasion that makes me feel good is when I find out that people I love have great things happening in their lives. Right now I have two cousins that are pregnant, and three sets of friends that have just had babies in the last 6 months. These are occasions that make me happy. I feel good when people I love experience a joyful occasion.

2) Food- What? Like food doesn't make you happy too. We all like to eat, if for no other reason than to stay alive basically. The thing is though, there are some foods themselves that just kind of make me feel good. You know as I sit here and ponder this and write it, I realize what an odd choice it really is for something that makes me feel good. One of the things recently that has made me feel good is the chicken "salad" that Roni has done for sandwiches. It's very simple, but it is oh so good. I could eat a ton of it it feels like sometimes, which ironically I'm sure would not leave me feeling so good.

3) People- One of the things that makes me feel good above most everything else is people. I should probably clarify a little bit at least. It's not really just people in general, but rather people that I have a deep affection for. So that basically breaks it down into two categories: family and friends. That probably should have been pretty easy to figure out. These are the two that do the most to make me feel good.

• Family- These are the of course the people that I get to see and talk to and spend the most time with. I love to get to spend time with Roni and Boo and Puck and Little Man. It makes me feel good to be with them. I love getting to hang out with Roni because she is my best friend and because we get each other. The kids of course are just fun to be with. Each has such a different personality and all three are so very sweet. I hope and pray that I am a good husband and father for these four very special people. Beyond that I enjoy spending time with my parents and my brothers. It makes me feel good to get to see and talk to them. We all get along well and that is a big help.
  
• Friends- After family it is my friends that make me feel good to be with. Due to the fact that the people that we are closest to as far as friendships go are all at least an hour and a half away or more, it is a big deal to get to spend time with these people. I love being able to share life with them as we are all growing and learning and experiencing things. It makes for a fantastic life experience to have people whom are as close a family members.

So what else is there that makes me feel good? Here are a few other things that have come to mind in the last few minutes.

• Working out- I know that seems like an obvious thing what with the health aspects and such, but for me the fact that I am actually doing something makes me feel good.
  
• Moments in my job- There are times that with what I do as a youth minister it can be very frustrating and discouraging. In fact our church right before coming to Quitman was like that. But, there are many times that something will happen-either a message will click just right, or an activity will lead to something deeper, or a kid will just open up-and I know that God is actually using me to help build His kingdom. When that happens, none of the rest of it-the frustrations and the discouragement-none of it matters anymore. When something clicks for these kids about what it means to be a follower of Jesus rather than simply a church goer, there is very little that makes me feel as good as that.
• Working on mission trips- It makes me feel so good when at the end of the week I can look and know that we have done our best to have an impact on someone else life with the work we do. And it's not only seeing the impact on the lives of the people being served. It's seeing the change in the lives of the ones doing the serving as well. That feels good.
• Those times when something clicks for me- There seem to be plenty of these times. I will be going along and be thinking about various things and/or praying and all of the sudden something will just make sense to me. When that happens, it does feel really good.

I think that is about it for now. I'm sure there are so many other things that I could list that make me feel good, but to be honest I'm tired and would like to sleep. That would go a long way to also making me feel good. Oh, and writing like this makes me feel good as well. Peace and Love y'all.