When you find yourself longing for tomorrow and wishing you could re-live yesterday instead of enjoying today, you miss the simple in-and-out breathing of today.
counts
Every day is precious--today, even
Every life makes a difference--yours, most definitely.
If you think I'm waxing eloquent, you might ask someone who has fought a life-threatening illness how precious every day, every moment, every breath seems--when the possibility of losing them is eminent.
I recently "suffered" in a steam room with my daughter and her friends. I joke because I was having a great time chaperoning the teens. However, the steam was oppressive! It just kept rolling in thicker and thicker until I couldn't see the people around me, and was breathing a a heavy, moist air...until someone opened the door to the outside and fresh, cold air poured in. Oh, to breathe again! I was so thankful to have that outside air--air that I breathed just minutes before without even considering it. It made me chuckle at how we don't appreciate something until we've been deprived of it for a season, or 5 minutes--as it was in my steam room.
One Ramadan here in Jordan, my friends and I fasted as prescribed by the Muslim faith, so we could share in the lifestyle of our friends who were doing the same thing. No food or drink from sunup till sundown. I have never been more thankful for water in my life than at sundown that month. Normally, I pine for Diet Coke, or bread products when I fast--but as water was denied me, I cried out for what was once so common.
Is there something in your life so common that you forget to thank God for it? It helps me to just look around and thank God every now and then. Some other moms I know have said "the mounds of laundry and dishes remind me to thank God I have healthy kids". Come to think of it, my own mother never loved dirty laundry as much as my Freshman year at Baylor when I'd come home to visit.
I am reminded to be aware of the preciousness of everyday life, being thankful for it all. Even trials--these trials serve to deepen our character and make us thankful for the things we once took for granted.
In the Bible, the book of James speaks much on this matter-
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Our pastor, Jimmy, coined the phrase "Hell up mentality," which means: being a sinner, I deserve Hell, so everything I get to experience is better than the Hell I actually deserve. When Hell is on one side of the scale, everything else starts to look reeeaaaal good compared to the alternative. So I ask myself, and I ask you...
What is good today?
Where is God blessing you?
Have you thanked God for being your provider, protector, and providing us with more than we deserve?
There is never a better time than the present to begin.
No regrets!!!!
I do remember those days when you would come home from college and would apologize for the dirty laundry and the full wastebasket...and I could not have been happier to see both. And I am even more thankful these days when that former Baylor Freshman arrives with her dirty laundry...because it also means she is also bringing five other precious clothes-wearers with her.
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