Blessings galore.

It's amazing how God humbles you sometimes.
I've been sitting here reading a blog that I found through a friend who knows a man who was recently diagnosed with cancer. He, & more recently his wife, posts about their daily struggles & small triumphs as they fight his battle for life. (www.teamemmett.com if you want to check it out, or donate money)
In the past weeks, my biggest struggles have been trying to find a prom dress & getting money for a spring break trip. Even trying to get money to cover college seems so insignificant right now as I read his blog. In my life I like to think that I try & think of others, but really, I just realize time and time again how selfish I am. All I ever think about is how things affect me, & I lose track so many times of things that really really matter. Like life. How many days go by without us even THINKING that we are so lucky to breathe? It's like we only notice things to be thankful for when something goes wrong with them. If I can't breathe one day then when I regain that ability will be the only day I'm thankful to be able to breathe, & then it's back to not thinking about it. If I don't have money to buy food & then somehow aquire money to buy some, I'm only thankful for it when it's hard to come by. Why don't we take more time to actually sit & think about the blessings that we consider to be small, insignificant entitlements, & thank God for them as the real blessings that they are? We always learn more through struggles, when we HAVE to draw near to God to make it through. Why don't we draw near to Him more when things are good, when food and blessings are plentiful? Because we don't "need" Him. Oh, how wrong that is.
In a generation that seems to feel entitled to everything they could possibly want, we need more people to look at things a different way. To notice the sunsets, the birds singing, the simple extravagance of clean water that so many people worldwide are going without, the fellowship and encouragement of our family and friends who are there to share it all with us, & be truly thankful. It shouldn't take the absense of good things to make us realize how great they were. "You don't know what you've got until it's gone", they say. Let's know how good we've got it while we've got it. Let's not wait for something bad to happen to make us thankful for the good. Let's focus on building thankful hearts that praise our beautiful God from whom ALL blessings flow. God doesn't have to give us breath, but He does. He didn't have to send Jesus to die for us, but He did. He loves us that much. It amazes me that when Jesus died, He was thinking of ME. Along with everyone else in the world, but still, if it had just been me alone, He still would have died for me because He loves me that much. How can we not be thankful for that? If someone took a bullet for you, or pulled you out of oncoming traffic, or rescued you from the floods around you, wouldn't you be thankful? Any person would say yes. So, why aren't we more thankful to Jesus? Because we don't "need" Him right now? Why should we wait until things get bad, until death is knocking on the door, until the money runs out, until some unimaginable tragedy happens, to need Him? He doesn't need us, He's God. But He WANTS us. Is that incredible to anyone else besides me? He gives us problems to show that He can solve them. But He can also work in the little parts of our lives to show the world that He loves us through it all, not just when we turn to Him in desperation. We serve an awesome God who is there through EVERYTHING. He knows us better than we know ourselves, & amazingly, loves us still.
This was probably more rambling than I was aiming for, but all in all, God is amazing. He shows me things daily that open my eyes wider to see more than the small "world" around me, & see His whole creation, & find His glory & frequently, His incredible blessings and love for us that are all around if we take the time to notice.
Notice some small blessings today. Take five minutes, lay down in silence, & listen to yourself breathe. Let's stop taking it for granted. Let's realize what we have, & use it for His glory. He gave it all to us, anyway.