Thankfulness

Everyday it seems that people are posting pictures and phrases on social media sites. Some of them I simply skim past, others I read and smile, yet others really make me think. This is a phrase from a post that I read recently, and it has really made me think. "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"

Wow, what if?  What if you only had what you thanked God for? Would your world look much different today then it did yesterday? I know there are many days where life consumes me and I am not as thankful as I should be. I rush through my prayers and neglect to thank God for His amazing generosity in our life. Even in our most challenging times we are blessed and it is important for me to remember that everyday.

Living in America it is easy to get consumed by all the STUFF we have, see and want. Americans typically have way too much stuff. Our family is no different, we may not have as much as some, but we still have too much stuff. This is very evident whenever we go on mission trips or watch TV shows about other countries. But, do we know what is truly important?

When I think about my prayers and what I thank God for, I can say that I have rarely prayed for all of our stuff. If I do pray for our "stuff," it will usually be "Father, please help us to be a good steward of all you have blessed us with." I have never gone through the house item by item and said thank you for this or that. Honestly, if I did pray for each item in our home, I would wonder if I had become distracted by all the consumerism in our society.

There are some things though that I know that I thank God for consistently. I am thankful for my husband, for the relationship that God has blessed us with and for his job that provides for our family. I am thankful for our children, for the joy they bring to our home, for the many gifts they have and for the abundant blessings they provide to those around them. I am also thankful for the home that God has given us, I feel truly blessed to be living here, it fits our family so wonderfully.

Well, that is about it, basically three things that I am thankful for everyday. These are truly the most important things to me and if I awoke with only those things, it would be quite a change, but I would still be blessed.

What about you? What would you thank God for today? What are the most important things you are thankful for? Let us take a moment each day and tell God how truly thankful we are for all He provides!