Saturday, November 19, 2011

A Thankful Heart


It’s 5:30 am and I sit with a steamy cup of hot co-co by my side sipping occasionally in-between the words I type. This is early for me to be awake…especially for a Saturday, but sleep eludes my restless soul this early morn. I have felt discouraged lately, a little beaten down, but even in the midst of these seemingly negative times I still praise my Lord and thank him for all the different feelings and emotions. I do have so much to be thankful for because God has so generously blessed my family and I.

It is so easy to focus on the things we desire to have instead of being content with what has already been given to us. I need to be very thankful for my good health and the good health of my husband and children. I am thankful for my daughter’s Asperger’s Syndrome (high functioning Autism). Even though the diagnosis of this social disorder brought great sadness and its own set of challenges, I wouldn’t change my daughter. I love her and the way God made her. I call her, “God’s girl”, and understand that she and my boys are an entrusted gift to me from God to take care of and raise for the Lord. They are all His children first before they were my children. I am thankful for my husband, our home, our cars, our pets, good friends, our church, God’s Word, and Jesus. I am grateful that I live in this great country, The United States of America, where we can freely choose and live out our faith. I am thankful for music not only because I love to listen to it, but because my oldest son loves to play his instruments. I am thankful for the abundance of food which most of us take for granted in America. The list could go on, but I leave you with this Psalm..

Psalm 100

A psalm for giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.