Thankful for Small Things

This morning, I was scrolling through Facebook, and quickly came across a heart-breaking post by a friend of mine that I met through work. A very good friend of hers and her family had the most horrific thing imaginable happen to them yesterday. Their house burned down, taking not only everything they own, but most tragically, the lives of their two precious young sons.
 
Someone has set up a crowdfunding page for this family. I read the story there and started crying. I don’t know this family personally, but I just can’t imagine what they are going through. It hurts me to think about it. If you would like to help them out, I know they would appreciate it. And, please, remember them in your prayers.
 
When I read about something like this, I immediately start thinking about how blessed I am. And, I start thinking about all the stupid things in my life that I have been considering “problems” and realize that, compared to this family and their problems, I have nothing at all to complain about. And, then I feel badly that it takes something this horrific to make me stop and realize how truly blessed I am.
 
I have a feeling that I am not the only one who does this. So, I say, let’s stop. Let’s stop focusing on all of our problems and start looking for all of our blessings. You may not think you have that many things to be thankful for, or you may be going through something so horrible; that it is impossible for you to focus on what is good.
 
But, trust me, if you start looking, you can find one thing after another to be thankful for. You can be thankful for the clothes on your back, the building that shelters you, for indoor plumbing, for being able to get out of bed, for having food to eat. Start with the small things. And, as the old saying goes, the small things start to add up to big things.
 
God loves you and you are blessed beyond measure. When you start to thank God for all the small blessings in your life, it opens the door for more blessings to flow through. I truly believe this. I have seen it happen in my own life.
 
So, today, on this first official day of spring of 2016, let’s start being thankful for the small things in life. This one small shift in our way of thinking can cause big and lasting and powerful changes in our lives.