Thankful Thursday

It's Thankful Thursday again over at Sting My Heart. So many things cross my mind on a daily basis of what I have to be thankful for. Just today I was remembering the time waaaaaay back when I was 19 yrs old, living on my own and making a whopping $5.00/hr. I shared an apartment with my best friend that, besides the fact had burnt orange carpeting older than we were and a bit of a sewer roach problem whenever it rained, really wasn't so bad. I didn't have a bed or even a mattress on the floor so I slept on a doubled-over thick comforter and I had just enough clothes for work to make it one week without wearing something twice. I also drove a 1976 Volkswagon Superbeetle with black vinyl seats and no A/C. It had a leak right above the accelerator pedal so that anytime it rained my right foot ended up soaking wet.

Ahhh. Good times.

I also remember one night, laying on my double-over comforter/bed crying because I was flat broke and quite unsure how I was going to pay for things that month. It wasn't that I didn't have people in my life who were willing to help me, I most certainly did. I just didn't have the willingness to swallow my pride and ask for that help. At least I had enough common sense to look to the Lord and I opened my bible. It was one of those moments you hear about - someone desperately needs a word from God so they randomly open their bibles and point to a scripture and it "just so happens" to be exactly what they needed. Here's what I opened my bible to:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. ~ Matthew 6:25-34

So, I'd just like to say:

• Thank you, Lord, for providing your good word so that we may look to it to find comfort and direction whenever we need it.
• Thank you, Lord, for keeping me fed, keeping me warm & dry and keeping me clothed even in my lowest times.
• Thank you, Lord, for staying with me through troubled times and helping me to keep moving forward to better my life and my circumstances.
• Thank you, Lord, for all the material blessings you have provided for me so that I may live in comfort and health. I know there are many others not as fortunate as I am and at anytime You can take Your loving gifts away from me. I thank you for your continuous favor.
• Most importantly, thank you, my most generous God, for your one & only Son who cleared my slate and cleansed my sins so that I may have a personal and precious relationship with You for all eternity. Amen.