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| Nasty weather prompted togetherness in the Withrow household. |
Came across this quote on Facebook yesterday and thought, “Yes, there is always something to be thankful/grateful for in my life.”
Someone told me a long time ago that if you just stop and count your blessings every single day, there won’t be much time left over to gripe.
Then I thought about blessings and how to turn even challenging situations into grateful ones.
Take the Arctic cold we experienced this weekend – while it was not conducive to outdoor activities, the extreme weather prompted us to clear off the coffee table and get started on a jigsaw puzzle we’d had sitting around for a couple years.
Charlie and I spent literally hours this weekend pouring over a challenge of birds and fences and lots and lots and lots of blue and green puzzle pieces.
For the record, I left those to Charlie’s capable eye while I concentrated on the songbirds!
Now that situation, at least to me, is turning a challenge into a blessing.
We stayed inside; we stayed warm; we enjoyed each other’s company; we made a lot of headway on our birds-on-a-fence puzzle; and, bottom line, we experienced gratefulness in His plan to reconnect with one another through a blizzard.
Thank you, Lord. We are blessed.
Can you remember a time where a challenge turned into a blessing? I am sure if you thought about it for a few minutes some test that you thought would be daunting ending up making you grateful that it had the audacity to intrude on your life. Right?
After all, we all know God sends the storm so we appreciate the sunshine He sends afterwards.
Paul explained God’s process in his letter to the Romans, Chapter 5, Verses 1-5 (NIV), where the apostle counseled, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us,” [emphasis mine].
Bottom line – But your faith in Him. That way, the challenges that seem to destroy your life will only require you to turn to Jesus Christ, where you will learn to persevere, build character and revel in His hope for your life.
May God bless and keep you in all your challenges. May you always find the sunshine in the trials life sends to seemingly trip you up. Trust in Him. He is always there for you, no matter what! AMEN
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