Thankful Everyday

Each morning I wake up grateful for this life I have. I don’t type this as some cliché but as my true heartfelt sentiment. I am so thankful each morning when my eyes open and I can feel the bedsheets touching my skin and the way my socks feel on my feet. My husband thinks it is weird that I sleep in super thick socks. Even in the summer I sleep in them. When I was sick I couldn’t feel my legs so my socks remind me that I can feel. I can move. I can breathe.

With the Thanksgiving weekend slowly creeping away I always get a tad sentimental this time of year. My mind spins at 100 miles a minute thinking about how thankful I am for this life I have. My life is messy at times, I have three little kids, my bathrooms aren’t always clean, and my kitchen floor usually has several sticky spots on it. But in spite of the mess, when the sunlight starts to creep into our home in the morning and I see our kids awake, running around, playing, laughing, and how the light dances around their head casting an angelic glow against their hair and on their skin I am thankful. Thankful for life and for this moment in time that I wasn’t sure I would have years ago.

As crazy as Josh may make me at times he is the only person in the world who deliberately chose to do life with me. For this reason and many others I want to cherish each and every moment I have with him. None of us are guaranteed a certain numbers of days.

Life can get complicated at times and feel overwhelming, almost suffocating. It is at these moments when I know I can not rely on my own self and when I grateful for Jesus. Grateful for the moments when life hits me so hard I can’t bear the weight of it on my own. Our sufferings, shame, and sadness can either push us away from Jesus or bring us to our knees at the foot of the cross.

“This life is the only hell believers will ever know. But for those who die in their sins, this is their only heaven.” Ray Comfort

The weight of this statement is huge. Read it again if you need. This life will be some people’s only heaven. And this is why I am grateful for each and everyday I have. Time is short and precious. We have to make the most of the moments we have. 

While I long for heaven, I am thankful to teach and raise my kids to know about the Lord, to read them the Bible, pray over them, and to be a present loving parent in their lives. I can think of no greater blessing then to see my children in heaven one day.

When life starts to feel like a wave crashing down I remind myself of all that I have experienced and where I am going. My thoughts anchor back to my Lord and Savior. And slowly the worries drift away like the wave going back to sea. I never thought I would see a day when I would have the family I do. So I am thankful each day I rise and feel the sunlight on my skin.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17