What are you thankful for?

I use to read this poem every year as a kid at our Thanksgiving Dinner. I LOVE it and it reminds me how blessed I truly am. My mom would always say, “That no matter how bad you think you have it, someone else always has it worse”. That is the truth and a great thing to keep in perspective when you are having a bad day!

Today, upon a bus, I saw a girl with golden hair.
I envied her, she seemed so gay, and wished I was as fair.
When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobbled down the aisle.
She had one leg and wore a crutch.
And as she passed… a smile.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 legs, the world is mine

I stopped to buy some candy. The lad who sold it had such charm.
I talked with him, he seemed so glad.
If I were late, it’d do no harm.
And as I left, he said to me, “I thank you, you’ve been so kind.
It’s nice to talk with folks like you. You see,” he said, “I’m blind.”

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 eyes, the world is mine.

Later while walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play.
He did not know what to do.
I stopped a moment and then I said,
“Why don’t you join the others, dear?”
He looked ahead without a word. And then I knew,
he couldn’t hear.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I have 2 ears, the world is mine.
With feet to take me where I’d go.
With eyes to see the sunset’s glow.
With ears to hear what I’d know.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.
I’ve been blessed indeed, the world is mine……..

~ Red Foley

I am so grateful for all that God has blessed me with, but a few things in particular:

• Grayson’s Lip Tie getting fixed with no complications
• Our family bible study that we have started. It has been wonderful to share in God’s word with 3 other amazing families. I love that my kids get to see their parents having bible study (which Cody talks about all the time now), they get to form relationships with the kids in the group (which all happen to be in his preschool class) and there is a mini study for the kids with a book and craft. It has really been great!
• I knew for many reasons that the place I chose for Cody’s preschool was right for us, but one thing I didn’t expect from it was how much it would get the conversation going in our house about God. I have a strong faith, but I am NO where close to where I need to be. I do my best and one thing I wanted to do with my kids from birth is talk about God and pray to Him. School has opened up a whole new world for Cody in regards to his faith and it has taught me ways to integrate God into our house so the kids can understand. I have been SO thankful for the amazing lessons, morals and values Cody has been coming away with from school. Sometimes it is those things we didn’t even think about for our kids that end up being the best for them!

This is Cody at Chapel in school. He gets SO into it! They teach them bible words for the month with sign language and then the director of the school gives a little “lesson” from the Bible. Now Cody does Chapel at home. He stands on his stool and sings his worship songs. It is SOOOO stinkin CUTE!

With this phase of life, we can get so bogged down with our daily “stuff” and our kids can drive us crazy so sometimes it is nice to take a minute for you and remind yourself what you have to be thankful for! It can change your entire perspective for the day. What are you thankful for??!!