Reflections

What a year has gone by. I thought that on my birthday last year, I'd be able to take a moment to reflect on all of God's blessings: where He's brought me, what He's helped me to overcome, and look forward to years of promises ahead. Well, I just took that moment now, more than 2 weeks after my birthday, because I sent a greeting to another friend. Do you ever find that you love to give advice to others, but find it hard to heed yourself?

My birthday came and went without much reflection or celebration because I was miserably sick and my husband was too. We're both just about rid of the many viruses we caught in the month of December, but I am just now taking time to realize that it's not the circumstances that one is faced with, it's how one handles them. It's the attitude that one takes to the situation and the choice one makes to be happy.

I look at my puppy and think, he must have a great life. He doesn't have to work, cook, clean, buy things. He just eats, sleeps, and poops. But then again I think, well, he depends on his owners to walk him, feed him, clean his cage, bathe him, clip his nails, take him to the vet, play with him, love him. He has "worries" too, like, "will they let me outside before I have to relieve myself?" Sometimes, I take for granted the many privileges I have to make my own decisions about what I'm going to do on a particular day. How I'm going to react to certain situations, and what I'm going to tell my husband when I give the daily report. He's good at giving me the gist of things, or leaving it out all together, and I have a tendancy to rehash all the details. That's part of our compatibility and frustration at the same time.

Well, I hope you take the time to reflect on God's grace, mercy, and blessings for those of us who know Him. And if you don't know Him, I pray that you would. It's so easy to think that we don't need God when things are going well, or if we've gotten ourselves into a rut because well, we'll just have to get ourselves out of this mess too. But He knows our every thought, our every heartache, our every desire. He wants to give his children good gifts, He just asks that we receive it, and not squander it saying, "Thanks, but I could have gotten that on my own." What a slap in the face, what a harsh rejection to a loving gift poured out for the world. I do hope that you can realize your need for a Savior and stop trying to be a hero all the time, feeling sorry for yourself when things don't go right. But instead, seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and all the rest shall be added unto you as well. Nothing you could ever have done is too terrible for Him to forgive. Just ask, wholeheartedly, expectantly, and believe on Him, and He will give you eternal life.