Blessings and Gifts
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| A small yellow flower blossoming |
God’s blessings are all around us. Small ones. Big ones.
Some we are surprised by. Others we take for granted. Sometimes, we don’t even
see them.
I see blessings as a gift from God. One of the first verses
that I remember memorizing as a child was James 1:17a. It was a verse that I
put in my heart and claimed as my own. In that verse, James says, “Every good and perfect gift is from
above” (James 1:17a). Those gifts from God are blessings to me.
Last
month, I felt God’s blessing in two ways; first by being able to recognize the
blessing, and second by receiving the gift.
Receiving
Somewhere
around this time of year, my family and I like to head south for a few days and
get out of the cold climate that we live in. We are not able to do this every
year, but if we can we try to do it a few months into the New Year. This year,
we picked a week that was free. I had a week off in between college terms and
it looked like a good week to go. But due to several different things going on
in my family, mostly the health of an extended family member, none of us felt
like we could commit to this vacation. We did not want to leave our loved one,
no matter how much we wanted to go on this “warm weather” vacation. We all felt
it was the right thing to do, to stay home. At the same time, we all wanted to
go and get out of the cool weather. But we stayed home and trusted that that
was the right thing to do.
And
God blessed us. In an area of the country that averages anywhere from 30
degrees at this time of year to 30 below, God blessed us with warm weather, and
I mean warm! It was 30-50 degrees warmer during this week than it usually is
and it broke several warm weather records for that time of the year.
While
it may not seem like a big deal to others, maybe not even to my other family
members, it was a big deal to me. It was God’s gift to me. I felt His blessing
for trusting Him.
Recognizing
The other part of the blessing that I received was
recognizing this gift from God. Sometimes, as I said before, we do not always
see God’s blessings and we miss them. I could have done this. I could have missed
this gift. But God gave me a double blessing! He blessed me with the gift of
warm weather (which meant a great deal to me!) and He blessed me by letting me
see it!
I challenge you to see blessings every day. They can be
small and you may think they are not there, but I guarantee that God has
blessings for you if you are willing to let Him work in your life and if you
are open to see them.
Do you have any stories of blessings in your life, small or
big??? I would love to hear about them. Comment here or email joyfilledgirls
[at] hotmail [dot] com.
By Mandy H.
