Because

Today I'll turn my "I wish.." into "I'm grateful", accepting present circumstances for what they are, truly grateful for life itself. We are blessed abundantly, even if things in our world don't measure up to the perfect mosaic in our mind that may or may not be God's portion for us. Will you join me? Be good to your soul today, you deserve it.

When we love God more than the life He has given us, we lose an attachment to things on this earth and become more aware of the things unseen. Our mistakes and failures impact us differently. We know that we are covered in grace but because we love Jesus we have an intentional pursuit of holiness. Generosity is a natural outpouring of our heart. Every day we face the tension of living in the flesh versus living with eternity on the forefront of our minds. I don't want less of anything, I just want more of Jesus.

Too often I believe we use our “faith” as the means to achieve equilibrium in our lives. Perhaps when we are stressed we pray that God would calm us, when we are anxious we seek comfort in hearing Him whisper to us that things will work out. But what does “work out” look like to us? God promises that we will face trials in this life. Our faith gives us the strength to be thankful for these difficulties in THE MIDST of our experience. We don’t have to wait to be thankful once difficult situations are reconciled. Being blessed entails something greater than everything in our world feeling comfortable, something greater than being all “set” with great family, great job, great home, etc. Faith is not hoping that circumstances will get better; it’s having the ability to run head first into the path before us. It will be difficult at times, but that does not mean we aren’t blessed or that he has left us. Our Father wants more for us than to give us a nice set up. How can we really make an impact in the lives of others without facing trials and difficulty ourselves? Bring it on Jesus, I have your Holy Spirit in me. You tell me who I am, where to go. Don’t just fix me, use me.