Thanksgiving Thoughts 2009

I am sitting in CiCi’s Pizza waiting for my family to get here so we can eat dinner. As I sit here I am thinking about this past year and all that we have gone through. A lot has happened this year. I will not go into details but in the natural this has been one of the worst years of my life. As I think about it all I am ashamed for all the complaining I have done this year. Ashamed at my lack of faith in facing the many mountains. Ashamed at my lack of prayer and leadership in directing my family through it all.

As I sit here and reflect on this past year, I can now see God’s hand in everything that has happened. So many of the things that have happened have been because of my own mistakes. God has been faithful to be there and lead me out of the stuff that I have done. Even when I was so upset that we only had $1.132in the bank account until payday God was there because we made it until payday.

Yesterday I got a reality check. My only living brother called and told me that this past weekend he was burning trash. He lives in the country. He picked up what he thought was a can of Diesel but it was gasoline. The can exploded in his hand. He was able to drop to the ground and finally put the fire out. He has 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns to his arm and his leg. As we talked I was so thankful that God was watching over him. This could have been so much worse but his life was spared and the damage not as bad as it could have been. Although there are still weeks of skin grafts and therapy ahead he is alive and will recover.

How many times do we forget about the little blessings that God has given to us as we await the large blessing we so desperately need? We get so caught up in the here and now that we forget to look at what he is doing in our lives.

Tomorrow as my family sits down for Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for. It’s not all the big stuff but the small everyday blessings that God has given to us.

My goal for the coming year(s) is to always look for those small blessings and enjoy them while I can. Happy Thanksgiving!