What I am thankful for!!

Well it has been a while since I have posted. This is mainly because I was out of town the whole week of Thanksgiving. This year was the first year that John and I were not visiting family on Thanksgiving. Since John is in a new job and wasn't able to take as much time off we decided not to make the drive home.

This year, I had the privilege of spending Thanksgiving week helping out a dear friend we made while we lived in Valdosta. My friend's daughter was having surgery that week and her husband is currently serving in Iraq. John and I decided that I would go help her out and he would drive up Thanksgiving day to be with us.

This past week allowed me to gain a new appreciation of military families. You see, I had never really been exposed to the military life style until we lived in Valdosta. I can honestly say that military wives are very strong women!! I kept thinking how much I missed being away from my husband for one week, and then realized that's nothing compared to what my friend was going through. Her husband had been gone for several months already and will not be home until the middle of Feb. This week helped me realize how blessed and easy I have it compared to these families! I now am truly thankful for what are military does and has done for our freedom! I am truly grateful I was given the opportunity to spend a week and help my friend out with her adorable little daughter!

Even though it is already past Thanksgiving, I still want to tell you what I am thankful for. There are many things that come to mind such as my family, John's family, my wonderful husband, and John's job, but most importantly I am thankful for Jesus' death on the cross, His forgivness and the gift of eternal life. I believe that this is most precious gift one can receive and I will always be grateful for this gift! A lesson God has been teaching me lately, is that He shows up all through our day, but we often never notice Him. This is because we don't acknowledge Him. I was emailed this story a while back and it has really changed that way I look at my day. Here is the story:

"I was in the waiting room and I saw an old friend with his wife - they're both in their 90's. He's working hard to care for his wife because her health is really deteriorating. Because it had been raining when they came in, my friend asked the dentist if he could help him get his wife out to the car. My dentist came back in, really touched by what had happened in those two minutes - so touched that he brought it up two more times. He said, "When I went out with George and his wife, it wasn't raining. And George said, 'Isn't it great that the Lord stopped the rain long enough for us to get out to the car?' Then he just looked heavenward and said, 'Thanks, Father.'"

Now isn't that acknowledging Him and noticing God working in the details of your day.If you don't, you'll miss God and you'll miss the joy that only comes from the Lord. But if you do train your heart to go on a daily "God hunt," you'll experience what the great preacher Charles Spurgeon talked about when he said, "He who looks for providences (or God actions) will never lack a providence to observe."

If you haven't been seeing God a lot lately, it's because you haven't been looking. I challenge you to go on a God hunt everyday and you will be amazed at how many blessings you were not noticing before!! I am thankful that I have a God who works in my life everyday!!