Thanksgiving Thoughts

My random Thanksgiving thoughts........ about thankfulness and abundance.

Thankfulness
I'm thankful for my childrens' laughter. There's nothing like hearing my 3 kids laugh so hard that they're almost crying!

I'm thankful for our fireplace. Love, love, love snuggling the fam by the fire with hot cocoa.

I really am in love with my flat iron right now. Do you understand how amazing it is to make a curly head of hair shiny and straight??

I'm thankful for disposable diapers. Obviously.

And for children's Benadryl. That stuff can really knock a kid out. (ooops, did I say that?)

I'm thankful for mascara. And I'm sure my friends and neighbors are thankful that I use it.

I'm thankful for God's love, and forgivness.

I'm thankful that I can go to the grocery store, buy more food than we need, and even have enough to splurge on Starbucks while I browse the aisles. I know that's completely incomprehensible to much of the world.

And I'm thankful that God gives us opportunities to use what He's given us to help others. And I'm not just being sappy cuz it's Thanksgiving. Really, truly..... I know that I don't even comprehend the extent of what I have.

Take for example, what most of us think of as "problems."

Here are some of my recent problems:
I don't have enough cupboard space, or room in my pantry.
The fridge is full of old food.
The laundry is piling up.
I want more closet space.
I can't stand sorting through all the kids clothes each season.
There is no room in the attic to store all the off-season clothing for 5 people.
The toy room is always a mess.
I want to lose ___ pounds.
What in the world am I going to buy everyone for Christmas?

I'm seeing some similarities here.......

ABUNDANCE.

So many of our so called problems stem from the fact that we have SO MUCH. We can't keep a clean house because we have so much stuff. Too much laundry to do, because we have so many clothes. It's hard to take off the weight, because we can eat all we want. We have enough financial resources to buy so many gifts that we can't figure out what to buy.

And yet people all over the world live on such meager amounts as $600 a year. If they are fortunate enough to have a home, they most certainly aren't worried about having so much "stuff" that they can't fit it all. They worry about providing just one meal a day to their family, not about the willpower to stop eating so much. They worry about having something to wear, not about finding the time to weed through closets and donate to Goodwill.

My point is this: God has blessed us so much that I think we don't realize much of the time what we really have. I want to have a thankful heart. I am blessed beyond measure.