Blessings

After writing "Senioritis", I took a little stock of where I am with respect to my career, family, and life in general.

I am well and truly blessed.

My family is a continued source of strength. I may be highly dissatisfied with my job, but a kiss from my wife and daughter send me to work every day with an energy I can't fully explain. My wife should make me the envy of every other man out there. She spoils me in exactly the ways I need exactly when I need it. If anyone could ever find their compliment, I've found mine. We'll celebrate 8 years together this year and it hardly seems possible. My daughter is more of a blessing than I could ever have imagined. Watching her grow and learn is amazing. She'll turn two in March and it amazes me how much she can talk already. She said, "I love you daddy" without prompting before I left for work a few days ago. Made me feel 10 feet tall (which only adds 3 feet 5 inches). Yes, they both can be difficult at times, but they are both such profound blessings upon my life that I can only chronicle their actions, but I can never fully describe their impact on my life. Phillipians 2:2

I'm blessed to have a good paying job. That being said, I hope to find a better position with the organization I work for sometime this year. My list of frustrations with my job is as long as I am tall, but with the economy in this state going down the tubes, I'm blessed to be employed.

I'm blessed with the intelligence to be nearing completion of a masters of science degree. I've never been so challenged in the classroom before and this has proven to be a test of will along with a test of intelligence. I'd love to pursue the PhD someday, but I need a break from school for a while. Besides, I promised my wife that I'd wait until the kids (yes plural even though we don't have a second one yet) were in school at least.

I'm blessed with the interest to work in a field like technology. I know I haven't posted on technology yet, but I'm putting a post together.

I'm blessed to have faith. Faith is one of those things that doesn't come easily to me. I consider myself to be a man of science and the empirical. Faith rarely fits squarely with the rational, observable, and provable. Faith that the God who created the universe wants a personal relationship with me and has an amazing plan for my life is humbling, but its also a blessing.

I'm blessed to have friends. Guys that can come over to watch Battlestar Galactica. Guys who don't have to ask if they can carry in my home. Guys I can go to the range with. Guys I can seek learned council from (I hope I can consider my pastor my friend) even when the issues are excessively complex. I'm not a person who will ever likely have tons of friends. I'm not a "life of the party" kind of guy (unlike my father-in-law). Small groups of people sitting around chatting, or playing Settlers of Catan is really all I aspire to enjoy socially.

I'm blessed to have my health. I have a fairly severe case of psoriasis which irritates every waking moment of my day, but I'm able to get up and do everything I need to do without pain and still have energy left over to play with my daughter.

I don't have any idea what the future will hold. 2006 is likely going to be a rather momentous year for me and my family.