Gratitude

I started to write a "Holiday" blog about Christmas and likes and dislikes, gifts, traditions and opinions and then it hit me... none of that really matters.

Big picture, none of it matters.

This season of our lives has been rough, brutal at times. My husband is working 50+ hours a week, going to school full time and we have two very busy girls under 3. Things are tight and it seems like no matter what is going on, how hard my husband works, things are always coming up a little short.

This Thanksgiving, we were planning on going over to a friend of the family's house and we were going to have a big, wonderful meal and fellowship. The day before, my 2 year old comes down with strep throat, my 8 month old has a faucet for nose, I've lost my voice and my husband isn't feeling so hot either. While "sharing is caring," some things are best kept to oneself... ya know, like strep. So we weren't able to go. But the day before this, the Lord provided all of the food we would need for our own family Thanksgiving meal down to the dollar. He also provided the fuel we would need for our car to get us through until Tim's paychecks could be deposited. We didn't get a $500 shopping spree to any store of our choice, we didn't win the lottery, we got exactly what we needed and on the exact day we needed it.

Spiritually, it seems like things have been quiet for awhile. Then, out of the blue, God will answered our prayers and give us the boost we need to get us through the rough patches. It's never fun being sick or having sick little ones, but sometimes you just need to slow down, quit moving so fast and just sit together. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day just the 4 of us and I think it was what He wanted. We serve a loving and generous God. We can either sit around complaining about what we don't have, how it would be so much better if things were different.... or we can just change our perspective a little and see how much God is dropping right in our lap if we'd only care to see it.