Let the Good Times Roll

God has been blessing me with a Thanksgiving in October! Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year-especially early fall. I love the cool crisp mornings and evenings. I love wearing jeans with a long sleeve shirt and my sandals (may not be completely stylish, but it's the most "me" of my wardrobe) Having hiking boots on with a sweatshirt wrapped around my waist is probably the other most "me" fall wardrobe. I just breathe deeply enjoying the crisp freshness in the air and the wonderful blue sky.

With all of this talk about the economy and hard times, I am reminded just how blessed we truly are here in America. In a way, I am thankful that our country is having to do a little soul searching and having to cut through the chaf to figure out what really matters to us. If we can only afford a few things, what is truly most important to us and why?

No one likes to struggle. But, in a strange sort of way, for me struggle and getting down to what really matters in life is like slipping into my favorite jeans. It is a place that I am quite familiar with. I know I'm going to have to get a little dusty cleaning up things that I have probably taken for granted and now must utilize and appreciate again for the function that they perform and I can do that in my favorite jeans without a lot of care. We draw more from our own "wells" or oil resources instead of just "buying" our way onto a more comfortable path. Suddenly keeping up with the Jones's doesn't matter. We couldn't before, but now somehow we are released because it's no longer an option to try.

My kids and I pray each morning in our van on the way to school. I have been working with them on how to begin by praising God or being thankful for answered prayers or things BEFORE we just pour out our list of wants and needs to Him. It has blessed me to hear the things that they are thankful for: having a house so we don't have to live outside, that mommy was tired last night so we got to have Chick-Fil-A for dinner, that my baby brother hugs me when I cry, that I got to the next level on Lego Star Wars and killed Darth Vader, you know...stuff that matters in their innocent worlds. Oh that we could appreciate the little things as they do!

Today as I finish this post, I am at peace. Thankful that God is at work in my life-that I am allowing Him to be, and reminded of all of the simple, and wonderful ways that we are blessed in this life. Take some time today to reflect on what you have already been given and might be taking for granted.

Many Blessings!