Showers of blessings

I have a question for you. Did you take time to thank God for His many blessings today? I know it’s difficult, even though it should be anything but difficult. We get so caught up and consumed in our busy, day-to-day lives that we fail miserably in recognizing God’s grace on our lives. For the past year, God has really been teaching me to “open my eyes” (no Brandon Heath…I love your song but I hear it on the radio 100 times day) to the blessings He pours on me each and every day. It’s funny because as I look back, I can see how routine my life has always been. I mean, when you’re in high school and your life consists of after school practices, homework, and church, it gets a tad bit repetitive. As I’ve transitioned to the “college life” (oh, so grandiose!) that routine has been shaken up a bit. I have found myself having more time to stop and look around at life. Today, I found out that my speech class for tomorrow was canceled. (yaaaaay!) It’s a fun class, but a lot of work. To sum up a long and rather boring story, my group has had to move our date for our group speech 2 times. I am not a patient person, those of you who know me know this all too well. And I am not the biggest fan of having to speak in front of people. (No, no, I can handle it; it’s just not something I would choose to do.) Any way, when I found out that class was canceled for this past week, I “jokingly yet seriously,” (if there is such a tone) said, “Thank You, thank You, thank You! The Lord LOVES me!!!” I have no idea why my class was canceled…I was blessed with the extra time to study for a test that I definitely needed the added time to do so. But in all seriousness, why not take the fact that your class was canceled as a blessing from God? The past 2 days at work I have gotten the closest parking spots to the door. (That sounds incredibly lazy, and I suppose it is….it was raining one of those days so I will use that as my excuse.) Life can be a whole lot more pleasant if we simply learn to acknowledge God throughout the day. How about when you catch that green light as you’re rushing home from a long day at school…or even when you have all the time in the world. I think if we learned to include God in our lives more than we presently do we would be SHOCKED to see how our days would turn out. What kind of relationship lasts when all you do is take? For the majority of the time that’s how we handle our relationship with God. I’ve “blogged” about it before, and here I am writing about it again: take the time to see God’s movements around you. When a stranger smiles at you and you have no idea why. When you see a college student reading his bible in the library or when your friend chooses to stick to her convictions rather than follow what everyone else is doing. When you’re given the opportunity for friendship, or when you are able bodied to bump around a volleyball; Thank the God who gives you all that you have and take the time to tell Him thank You. Be blessed and look for His blessings...you'll find them.