Viewing the Blessings of Life!!!!!

I asked the coach the other day, what he thought a "blessing" meant? How he viewed a blessing? I like to trip him up every once in awhile, and it makes things really fun for me at times. :) He is not a deep thinker, outwardly speaking and I am. His response, was simple " it's something good that happens." I went further saying what if the circumstances where much different and it was something bad, yet turned into something good? What about that? Would you still consider this a blessing? His response, "yes I would." Romans 8:28 " And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."

Each of us has stories to tell of trials, blessings, and battles that we each have faced in our lives. My mom had a saying in her kitchen that I still have to this day. " Happiness is found along the way, not at the end of the road!" I think it is how one views the circumstance and then the end result? I chose to look at daily struggles and trials as blessings. I know without a doubt that God does not withhold anything, unless he has something perfect in mind later down the road. I have been in those valleys of life and sometimes feel I am there daily!

 The coach and I have been praying for a very long time for direction and for God to open doors in our family and his job. Its very easy to look at everyone else and see their blessings but when you are feeling like nothing is happening, it becomes difficult to realize the blessings when they do come. Little or big!!A blessing is a gift!!! Be grateful and thankful!!! So many can't or won't ever realize when they are blessed and they miss it.

I love photography!! I am learning more about it everyday. I am always trying to capture that one beautuful picture. I might take hundreds of photos to find only a few that are breath-taking!! Well, my middle daughter Katie has a hidden talent that we have come to discover!! She shot this beautiful photo of the Northwest Oklahoma sky one evening at our house! This is a blessing to me!!!

Have a great day everyone, Anita

I'm struggling this morning with my attitude toward people.  My oldest son and husband had a recent run-in with an assistant staff member at my sons' elementary school in the drop off line.  This woman yelled at our son for not getting out of the vehicle fast enough and essentially holding up the line.  Now, as you can imagine there is more to the story.  First of all, it was raining outside so my husband pulled forward to allow our son to be closer to the door.  Second of all, the bus that was pulled into the same area was blocking any cars from advancing through the line anyway, so if there was a hold up it was not our sons' fault.  And finally, I'm convinced this woman has major control issues.  My husband was so angry with this woman that I am very surprised he did not confront her right then.  It was probably a good thing that he still had to drop off our youngest child at school and didn't have time to stop.  He came home visibly upset and angry at this woman for her actions and words toward our son.  This in turn got me very upset at the same woman.  My husband did contact the school and work toward a resolution of the problem so, he did follow through once he cooled off. 

Now every morning when I drop off our son at school and see this woman, all I can think about is how poorly she treated him.  I am having a terrible time with forgiveness in this situation and I didn't even witness the event!  I feel myself getting angry with this woman every time I see her standing there, and I know that I have a very stern look on my face as I pull through the line.  In fact, I can feel myself getting angry as I write this post.  Every day as I pull out of the drop off line I ask God to forgive my thoughts of ill will toward this woman.  I know how wrong it is for me to feel this way and I am trying hard to get past it.  I guess it's just the mother side of me wanting to protect my children from anything even remotely negative in their lives.  I am starting to understand that as they get older they will face more and more situations with people that can have negative effects.  I am going to pray for this woman and myself and I have faith that God will answer my prayer and I will get past the negative feelings that I have toward her.  It's just a reminder of how human we truly are.

Blessings to all,
Latasha

"But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  Mark 11:26