Counting My Blessings

God has been so good. I have recently started trying to count my blessings after coming out of a stage of discouragement and hardships in my life over the past semester. It has been my goal to start recognizing and thanking God for the many ways He has blessed me and as I started out I found myself thanking Him for the usual: health, an incredible family, a great school, loving friends, a wonderful boyfriend, amazing grace, salvation, and the like. But as I continued this thought process I realized I have seen God’s grace and mercy in my life in tangible ways that I would say I am grateful for, but didn’t totally stop to recognize and thank the Lord for. I know I won’t remember all the specific situations, but I want to share a few of the big things I have seen God do recently.

First of all, the source of much hardship was the loss of my wonderful, wise, loving grandfather in August, and the passing of my equally amazing grandmother just two weeks later. Their deaths were somewhat unexpected and a very hard situation to cope with. However, I am so grateful for grandparents who were such wonderful, godly examples who left a wonderful legacy of the Lord’s faithfulness. I am so relieved that they are now absent from the body, and the pain that went with it, and present with the Lord. I am also thankful for the family that God has blessed me with, and the times of reflecting and reminiscing together, which also greatly helped the healing process.

In the first couple days of December my brother was involved in a head-on collision in his truck, but walked away unharmed, except for a small cut on his hand and a bump on his head. In a situation in which he could have lost his life, the Lord chose to spare him, and provide him with a good deal on another truck soon after the accident.

In early January my boyfriend’s niece was able to come home after being in the hospital three months, since her birth. She is now doing well, growing like she should, and I am sure it’s because of the many prayers that went up for her. She had a rough and very unsure start, but the Lord has blessed her already, and I am so excited to see her again this weekend and witness another tangible example of God’s faithfulness and answered prayer.

Last spring I was involved in what the police thought was going to be a drug bust with three of my other closest friends and another individual that two of my friends had been working with through their PCM (Practical Christian Ministry). After being stopped on the sidewalk by a Chicago Police Officer and various other officers in squad cars pulling up, then extensive questioning, we found out that they had expected “Mike” (not his real name) of selling drugs to us. However, our stories all matched up and they let us go without any further trouble. That situation led us to pray more fervently for “Mike” and petition the Lord for his salvation. It took almost a year, but “Mike” recently agreed to come to church with us and he has begun questioning the Bible and what is really Truth. I was so encouraged to see “Mike” at this stage of asking good questions and looking for real answers. It can be so discouraging to continuously share the Gospel and rarely see results; in fact, it may take years, but we cannot give up on those who need the Gospel and the reason for this hope we have.

There are many more answers to prayer that I have seen recently, and these only serve as a taste. Every morning when I wake up breathing I should be reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness. There are not always “big” answers to prayer surrounding us, but I have been so encouraged to notice every little miracle and example of God’s faithfulness in my life. He is so good.