gratitude

i wrote this to a friend and thought it might mean something to someone out there...

i've learned that this is life. play the hand you're dealt. you can either enjoy it, or be miserable. being miserable isn't fun. so, may as well enjoy it. i keep thinking, if we lose everything, oh well. we'll move on. it will work out. just enjoy TODAY jules, don't think about tomorrow. one thing that has gotten me through this LONG season, is to ceremoniously cross the day off the calendar and say, thank you Lord we made it through another day. my gratitude journal has entries like: we are still breathing. there is always something to be grateful for. it may not seem like much, but if you look you can find it. i'll stop preaching now.

this lesson struck me when i was playing solitaire (it is what i do while waiting for my dialup to dialup). there is no way to change the cards, to reorder them (though i try), to "cheat" and reshuffle them (i confess, when playing in 3d it is hard not to reshuffle and keep going). computer solitaire is a lot like life that way, what you are dealt is what you play and sometimes, many times you lose (or at least i do).

this has helped me immensely of late because i want different circumstances in my life, i want my husband to be employed, i want to have a clean house, i want to have friends and the ability to mutually express my love and affection for them, not being a charity case any longer! but those are not the cards in my hand at this moment. i am holding lot of nines and fives, and there are nothing but jacks and queens coming up in the wrong order. so many possibilities, so few that actually workout. this is the sad tale of my times. but God is faithful. if i just hold that wretched hand up to Him, He gives me grace to get through it. He looks down in favor upon me and breathes His assurance and peace.

life sucks sometimes. but that is just the way it is. find something to be grateful for, as brennan manning says, gratitude begets trust (my paraphrase). even if it is only, i am still breathing today Lord, for that i am grateful.

i will be posting some excerpts from my Abundance of my Poverty manuscript. what the heck! perhaps they will bless you.