Thankful

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. – Deuteronomy 6: 10-12

One of my goals this year is to spend some quality time with God each morning. The idea is to wake up and chill with God for several minutes and talk about a few things.

The first thing I am supposed to do is list off all of the things that I am thankful for: God, family, friends, good health, love, life, not being hungry…

You get the idea.

Well that didn’t happen this morning. I woke up earlier than expected after realizing that I broke this machine I am using to heal my ankle. (I used my MacGuyver skills later in the day to fix it. I didn’t even need to use the rubberband and paper clip… just electrical tape. I’m awesome.)

So clearly the day was not off to the best start.

I got to work and it seemed like everything was extra annoying. By the time the work day came to a close I was not in the best of spirits. I was absurdly tired. All I wanted to do was get out of there, go home and take a nap.

I happily got on the bus, promptly fell asleep, and with a bit of grace woke up just in time to get off at my spot. I dragged my feet as I walked the usual route home. And finally, after what seemed like an epic journey of Exodus proportions I made it home.

Hallelujah!

Clumsily, I plopped down on my bed and it welcomed me with open arms. I had finally been reunited with my best friend. I interrupted our meeting just long enough set the alarm on my phone and then promptly returned my full attention to her.

Nap time was glorious.

I woke up a couple hours later and jumped on twitter to see what was going on in the world.

One of the popular topics of the day was “smile”. Intrigued, I clicked on the link to see what folks in the twitter world were saying about smiles.

It was beautiful.

People from all over were commenting about what makes them smile. So I started thinking of what makes me smile: God, family, friends, love, a beautiful sunset… so many things.

Just thinking about these things made me feel so refreshed. I felt brand new.

But then I thought about how I felt earlier in the day. Why was I so irritated? And then I remembered… I missed that morning chill time with the Homie.

It’s amazing how perspective matters so much. If we remind ourselves each and everyday of the blessings that we have received, then we start to see the world in a totally different way. We see beauty in the common place, love in the eyes of strangers, and opportunities in our struggles.

That’s one of the things that my time with God in the morning does for me. It gives God the opportunity to remind me of all of the blessings He has given me.

I may have missed it this morning, but you can bet that I will not miss it tomorrow.

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 5-7; Mark 11: 1-18