Blessed

I feel like I often take so much time to complain about how stressed I feel instead of being thankful for how blessed I really am.

"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd take ours back."

Last week, I started my social work internship at the Macomb Homeless Coalition. (I also spend some time working with pregnant women/new moms at Abigayle Ministries, but most of my time is with MHC.) My job right now mainly involves answering calls from people who need help - homeless people, families who are losing their homes, or people whose utilities are being shut off. There are actually an infinite number of reasons why people call, but those are the top three so far. One woman who called this week was in tears on the phone, explaining to me how her the home that her family was renting just sold. They have to be out by the end of this month. She didn't know what to do. After talking with some of the staff the next day, it was determined that we were unable to help her. They asked me to please call her back and let her know. I put off that phone call for several hours. When I finally did call her back, she started crying again but thanked me for trying to help. I suggested a few web sites that might be useful to her in her home search, and then we hung up. I felt so defeated having to leave her in that situation of impending homelessness.

This "job" has really opened my eyes to how very blessed we are. We have a home, enough food, and heat during these cold months. We have a supportive network of family, friends, and church members. I have the opportunity to graduate from college - something that most of the world will never do. We have each other. So many of the women who call are single parents with several children that they are trying to keep warm and well-fed. I am so thankful to have a husband who is by my side through the good and bad. And we have our baby girl, whom we will soon be holding. In a society where there are couples struggling with the despair of infertility or the grief of a loss, we have been blessed with our little miracle.


I am so thankful for each of the gifts God has given us, but I am most thankful for my relationship with the Giver. So often, I see something that my life is "missing" or that I wish would be different, and I automatically go to God questioning why things aren't working out in my favor. What I must continually remind myself of is that every good and perfect gift is from above. I have done nothing to earn the blessings in my life. In fact, I don't deserve anything good that God has given me. But out of His great love for me, in spite of my sin, He has blessed me. I need to be thankful, not wanting "more" or "better" or "different" things in my life. So for today, I am choosing to be thankful.