Blessings

I was rereading this devotion this morning, after the awful news that our beloved niece and her husband lost EVERYTHING in the Colorado fire. They were fortunate to come away with their lives. There are some things in life that leave us speechless. While I sit here in my paradise with people who I love with all my heart, not a worry in the world (oh, how blessed I am!), there are so many in the world who literally have nothing. I'm reposting this because I, too, need to remember the small things - the many rainbows - that make life good. Please pray for the people who lost it all!

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“In all that you do, avoid grumbling and disputing, so as to be blameless and
innocent, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverse generation where
you shine like stars in a dark world ... ” (Philippians 2 14,15, Moffatt).

Dr. Charlotte Kasl wrote something that really touched my heart and made me
realize that we take too much for granted in our lives: “So next time you sit
down to a simple supper, crawl into a cozy bed, have a warm chat with a
friend--Imagine that you are at the end of the rainbow...this is life, and it’s
wonderful....”

We lose sight of so many blessings--rainbows--in life. I think it’s because we
have so many that we no longer even recognize what a blessing is. A few years
ago I started thanking God for the hot water each time I take a shower. That
sounds a bit silly, perhaps, but at least it makes me aware that hot water is a
gift we take for granted every minute of the day to wash self, children, clothes
and dishes. Just think if we stepped into the shower and--no hot water! Just
think if there were no water at all!

Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote one of the best books I’ve read on the character and
characteristics of our Lord Jesus. It’s titled The Manhood of the Master,
published in 1913. From the chapter titled “The Master’s Endurance,” I quote:
“[Jesus] made the best out of one of the most un-ideal situations that ever
faced a great soul. He did not demand a different farm to labor on; he went to
work on the farm that he had, and grew harvests on that, which have been feeding
the world ever since. His life sounds a courageous call to all of us: Stop
whining; stop pitying yourself; see what you can do, by the help of God, with
your un-ideal situation, for God never would have given it to you without some
fine possibilities in it.”

I do believe we’d all be happier if we had fewer demands and if we worked on our
marriage and our situation and our farm that we already have. One of my favorite
verses is Psalm 16:6: “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I
have a good inheritance.” What a promise that is when we become discontented.