Gratitude

Recently I have been so full of gratitude.  Yes, I'm sure a certain holiday this month has helped bring blessings to my mind.  We have been given so much.

My husband is finishing his last semester in school.  Finances have been stretched, and I have learned so much by learning to stretch along with it.

One day I was frustrated by feeling like we has so little.  God sure opened my eyes. I realized that though this semester, by finding cheaper ways to do/make things than just run to the store, I have learned things that will save our family thousands of dollars in the future.  They are not that difficult of things either.

 I  also began to look around at all of the blessings and things we did have. Technically, because of our student income we are considered "poor".  We have everything we need and a lot of our wants too. We are so blessed, we have plenty of food, housing, clothes (a lot of them), transportation, entertainment, and no debt. None of the things we own or do are particularly fancy, but it works and we are happy to have them.  Poverty?  This is not.  A one room shack with three families living in it, with no oven or running water, that's poverty.  Access to only two or three types of food and never enough to fill your belly. That's called poor. And I hear when people travel to impoverished countries they find people who are happier than us with all our stuff.

Sometimes we live such inflated lifestyles, needed all the latest gadgets the day they arrive on the store's shelves, stuffing ourselves at all-you-can-eats, buying new clothes every season,  and entertaining ourselves with things that suck away our paychecks.

I am grateful for the many blessings we do have.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody.