Tonight, I started reading the book Start, by Jon Acuff. It is a book that looks at two roads…the road of average and the road of awesome. I can already tell you that I want to travel on the road of awesome and I don’t want to waste a lot of years on the road of average. Unfortunately, average is the most popular because average is the most FAMILIAR!

Interesting enough, the older I get the more frustrated I think I become with familiar. I always choose the most familiar food on the menu item. I always choose the most familiar path on the map. I always choose the most familiar shopping stores. I always choose the most familiar people to hang out with…and the more I type tonight, the more I realize how boring I have become. And, that frustrates me! I am almost afraid to say this out loud because I might be held accountable to it, but I am hungry for change, adventure, out of the ordinary, unexpected, weird, out of the box, extraordinary, and not familiar… life. I don’t want to look back 10 years from now and realize that I could have had awesome, but I was so comfortable with average that I put it in cruise control and just coasted.

I have read the book The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson several times. When I taught high school English, I began the first day of the school year by reading chapter one of that book to each class. I challenged my kids to not be like the characters who made up the Land of Familiar, but rather be like the character Ordinary. You see, Ordinary dares to leave the Land of Familiar in order to search for a dream that he had been given by the Dream Giver.

Like Ordinary, we all have been given a dream by the Dream Giver and it is not a dream that keeps us on the path or average, but rather a dream that compels us to travel the path of Awesomeness. A dream that will lead us to a destiny of passion, purpose, and position to make a difference. I think it is time to…START.

My 28 Thanks:

1. I have a dream. (Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for that great line).

2. The Dream Giver gives everyone a dream.

3. Its an awesome, not average dream that He gives.

4. I don’t have to be ordinary. I can be extraordinary.

5. I read books.

6. I apply the knowledge that I read in books.

7. Jon Acuff’s whit.

8. Adventurous, out of the box, risk-taker people. I admire the risk they are willing to take to achieve awesome.

9. Freedom of Speech.

10. Read an awesome chapter in my Blessed Woman book. I have really enjoyed studying about the women in the Bible.

11. The life of Rebekkah.

12. People who take initiative.

13. I had a nice lunch with my friend, Laura.

14. Veggie spud and unsweet Tea at McAlisters.

15. Judah had a fun day.

16. Gary picked up our new table today.

17. Grant and Zach came over and helped Gary move a large piece of furniture.

18. Brandon and Leslie did my financial statement while I was away at kids camp…so helpful!

19. Men who speak honesty and encouragement to other men.

20. Gary received a text from a new friend last night and the words spoken really encouraged him and excited him.

21. Spent an hour on the back patio reading tonight.

22. Jetted tub.

23. I have an inside job. So thankful that I am not a brick layer, roofer, landscaper, construction worker, etc…I get to work in the A/C all day long.

24. Men and Women who do manual labor.

25. My brother and sister-in-law celebrate 7 years of marriage today.

26. On July 8, Mrs. Debbie was born. She is a great friend, an awesome kids leader, and has a most beautiful heart for the Lord. I am glad she is in my life.

27. Two new recruits to kidmin today!

28. The Lord is so good and so faithful and so loving and so true and so so so so the center of my life.