Blessings

Blessings
Yesterday I was brought, once again, face to face with many of the blessings of my life. First, the fact that I have LIFE and that it is abundant in so many areas: friends, family, church body, fun, financial provision, growing relationships, faith, health, deliverance....I am truly wealthy in these areas. And then Holy Spirit asked me deeper questions..."If they come from me, aren't the hard things blessings too?" "If I brought you from death then isn't the fact that you know you were walking in death a blessing too?" What about having been in poverty, then the knowledge of what poverty is...That is a blessing, to know it, have tasted it and know that I do not want to return to it. Rejection is a blessing that has taught me to love without end, to not reject and to have mercy beyond my desire. Self righteousness...To have been there is a blessing that taught me to be humble and teachable. Humiliation, has taught me to not have ungodly pride and arrogance. Unloveable, this is a blessing that saved my life in a dramatic way...It taught me that I am not above anyone, and that God had a plan for my marriage that was dependent on me becoming open and giving regardless of my fleshly plan for my life. My 4 J's were in a plan of blessing that gave me a true understanding of what Godly love is like and that my life has meaning beyond myself. I find myself going over and over the things that are nice but they often fall short of the "blessing" title and setting my mind on the concepts, the people, the ups and the downs that have brought me to this place...I can see each part of my life, the ugly, the nice, the mean, the loving, the sin and the LIFE and see it all as blessing that made me who I am supposed to be right now and the director that will color the rest of my life. And now it hits me, I always tell my kids when they leave me for a time (school, church, friends house) to "be a blessing" and I am awed to realize that God tells me that each day and that I am a blessing regardless of how the day turns out, He designed me to BE A BLESSING and not to just be blessed. Thank you Lord, for making me a blessing.Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;and where there is sadness, joy.O Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;to be understood, as to understand;to be loved, as to love;for it is in giving that we receive,it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.Amen. St. Francis of Assisi