18-Leaders and Friends

Thank you, leaders and friends at Cedar Mill Bible Church.  Dan and LeeAnn for your generosity in sharing your home and your life with crazy teens, Dina for your love, encouragement & hugs, Carol for your honesty and straightforward-truth-speaking love, Beth for sticking with me through college, knowing I could call and chat and pour out my heart was a true blessing. John, Jon, Mike and Becky, and all the rest. I know I’m forgetting so many!! Thank you, Thank you!!

Thank you to all (I tried listing names, but it was too overwhelming) in our group for being a part of our spiritual family.  Even though we were new to the church you accepted us a family.  Thank you!!

17-Inspiring Teachers

Thank you, Sunset High teachers. My words are so inadequate to express what I feel. You challenged me to think deeply, to work hard, and to have fun learning.  I truly feel blessed to have had such a memorable and valuable high school experience.  Your influence, dedication, and encouragement inspired me to be a teacher.  I am forever in your debt.  I love teachers and I love teaching!

16-Inspiring Friends

I want to thank my friends at Cedar Park/Sunset High.  I loved taking classes with you, hearing your thoughts on all topics, from history to current events. I felt honored to be included even though I was new to the school. (I know you all grew up with one another.)  You challenged me to see life through a different perspective, thank you!  I also want to thank all SAMBA members… such great memories made.  As a “grown-up” I see the value in encouraging a group of teens to work hard together to create a spectacular show, and we did it three years in a row!!  I hope my children will have a similar experience.  Thanks for the memories!!

15-Laughter and Peace

So… when I began this personal challenge… I had a list of people I wanted to include.  (I did not list everyone I could think of and then rank them, thus this list does not represent my “Top 40”.)  This list is heavily influenced by where I am right now, recently moved and thinking about friends I used to see regularly, as well as thinking about my own jr. high experiences as I seek to parent my own jr. higher.

To give my list an order, I  decided to write chronologically… more or less… and thus, today’s “person of the day”, (I know I am one day late =P) is a boy I met when I was just 15.  A boy who would one day become my boyfriend, fiance, husband, and father of my children.  

Today, I thank Todd.  You are the one who makes me laugh, who calms me down when I am overwhelmed, and who reminds me that God is in control.  I love this adventure we are sharing together.  It is strange how working together, yet being so often apart, has brought us closer together.  

Above all, this is an official “Thank you”  for supporting and encouraging me through my classes so I could earn a Masters Degree. Thank you for sacrificing time with me as I wrote papers and solved statistics problems.   I couldn’t have finished without you.  I love you!!!

14-Memories of Laughter

I have one more memorable friend to thank from our years in Seattle.  Julie.  Your smile lit up the room!!  You were always ready to laugh, at yourself as much as with others.  My daughter is in Jr. High now, giving new insight into the blessings of our friendship.  I want to thank your mom, too.  She always welcomed my sister and I into your home and made us feel like part of the family.  Thank you for your friendship, for laughter, and for sharing your life with me!

13-Radical Challenge

Thank you Steve Allen, for your encouragement to live a "Radical" life.  Thank you for your inspiring passion for the Lord and for people. As a young teen I loved our youth group and the friendships that grew in the community you helped to develop. You challenged us to take our faith seriously and to think deeply about what it means to follow the Lord, setting high expectations and encouraging us in our efforts to reach them. You made my Jr. High experience meaningful and memorable.  Thank you!

12-Potential Named

"Brenda, a uniquely kind and gifted young lady whose desire to please God is evident in all aspects of her life." ~Mrs. Geren, 1988

I'm not sure how you saw this in me, an arrogant and self-centered Jr. Higher.  You looked beyond that, saw what I could be, and blessed me with an expectation that I, 26 years later, still seek to meet.  Mrs. Geren, you taught me so much more than Bible and Art. Thank you for seeing & naming my potential and inspiring me in my journey to reach that lofty goal.

11-Life Lessons

Before I continue on to my Jr. High years, I want to thank Tom and Ginny Swann, friends of my parents with whom we shared many happy camping trips.  Ginny, thank you for your encouragement and special gifts. I always knew you were so happy to see me and spend time with my family.  You taught us to say “Big Whoop” when we were “making much ado about nothing”, teaching by example of how to parent with humor.  Tom, you taught me how to eat crackers without leaving crumbs.  More importantly, you taught me that dads who are stern and don’t want crumbs in their cars still deeply love their children, and their friends’children. You were a special part of my life, thank you!

10-Truth Speakers

Gretchen and Tom Glover will complete the list of the first ten people from my first ten years of life.  First friends of my parents that I can remember, You taught me the Good News and supported and encouraged our family through so many joys and struggles.  You faithfully prayed with and for us and encouraged us when we made the move to Portland.  Moving as a 14 year old was completely overwhelming and I found great comfort in your encouragement that God had a purpose for us in our move to Portland.  Thank you for speaking the truth in love.

9-First Friend

Jennifer.  I have always admired your quirkiness and pride in being uniquely you!  I don’t think I will ever be able to fully appreciate growing up with a friend like you.  You are my first friend!  I am thankful for our friendship that began so long ago on our first day of Kindergarten.   Thanks for the fun memories of making up plays using Stop Thief! for sound effects, slumber parties and Michael Jackson, birthday celebrations, Girl Scout camping trips and Jr. High camps with church.  I loved living our early years together, I’m glad facebook has given us a chance to reconnect and I hope to get up to Seattle to see you soon!!!

8-Faithful & Creative

I want to thank my Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Ric.  Your love of God and family, shared camping trips, creativity and family fun give me a tangible example of how to include these qualities in my own family.  Thank you for your example of regular family devotions, creative and sometimes crazy activities, and holiday celebrations.  I love you and look forward to when we can all be together again!

7-Servant’s heart

I want to thank my Aunt Joanne for your example of a servant’s heart.  You have blessed so many others by using your gifts and talents to serve others.  Thank you for your example of how God uses His people to love and serve others from all cultures all over the world.  Your example reminds me of the bigger picture of how God is at work in this world, working through His people to love and serve “the least of these”.

6-Life Legacy

I want to thank my grandparents, John and Eleanor Gates.  Your lives of quiet faith, trusting in the Lord in every circumstance, inspire me to continue your legacy.  Thank you for family gatherings, for shared meals and for teaching me to enjoy the too-brief times we share together.  Thank you “Grammy” and “Gramps” for your amazing legacy of a life lived well.

5-Heart Vision

Mark, you look beyond the external and see a person’s heart.  You inspire me to care for others, especially those who are struggling with life choices and circumstances.  I am so excited to see the man you have become, a steady job, soon to be married, a real grown-up!!  Thank you for teaching me to enjoy the present, to live life to the fullest in every moment.  You help me to remember not to take life too seriously, except when necessary.

4-Loved All

I want to thank my brother, J-J (James-John).  You loved your friends regardless of their choices.  It didn't matter who they were or what they did, you loved without judgement, the way Jesus said we were to love others.  I am profoundly changed and inspired by your too-short-story of life on this planet.  I pray that I will live as you lived and love as you loved, without judgement and with passion, faith, and integrity.

3-Faithful Disciple/Teacher

I want to thank my dad, David Avery.  By your example and in your words you taught me to be a faithful disciple and teacher.  Through all the joys and sorrows of life’s circumstances you have remained faithful to honor God in all you do.  Thank you for being a "faithful man" who "teaches others". (2 Timothy 2:2)

2-Prayer Warrior

Next, I want to thank my mom, Louise Avery.  From my earliest memories you prayed for us and for others.  You taught me and continue to teach me that God is in control of all of life and desires to know our hearts through prayer.  In ways that are often mysterious, God chooses to accomplish His work through prayer.  You “help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”  ( 2 Corinthians 1:11) Words are not enough to thank you for this gift of prayer!!

1-Christ Compass

I want to thank my sister, Rebecca Bailey, for always pointing me to Christ.  No matter what challenges you face or joys you experience, you consistently point to Christ.  From as far back as I can remember, you have inspired me to strive for excellence.  You  inspire me to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” and to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith”. (Hebrews 12:1-2) Thank you for your example, my sister, my twin.

My First Forty

Authors officially acknowledge that their story was only possible through the help of others.  In the same way, my story is inseparable from the many “characters” who have shaped and influenced me, imaging Christ in real and tangible ways.  

Tomorrow is the first of the last 40 days of my first forty years of life on this planet.  

The Plan?  Take 40 days to thank 40 people.  

Tomorrow I begin my “Acknowledgements”  for the story of My First Forty.

Enjoy the story!!