July 19th

Don't Forget

We are blessed beyond our dreams. It is so easy to forget God in all of this despite the fact that He is the provider of all our material blessings. The more we have the easier it is to forget what truly is important in life. Perhaps we should just simplify our lives.

Since there is a little bit of time left in this nice morning I came to sit out on the patio to do today's reading but yesterday's (Fridays ) caught my eye so I began with it. As a wife, mother, (including mother-in-law) and grandmother who has recently spent time with each of you in beautiful settings it is easy to see why God brought this one to my attention. I quickly became aware of how I take so much for granted and need to show more gratefulness to the One who has blessed not only me but also my children with so much.

With Keith's family we have recently  twice enjoyed not only our "new " home , which includes a long overdue "Keith" size bed, but also our backyard and pool. It doesn't get much better than watching Ella swim all around the pool on every type of flotation device and practice swimming underwater or seeing Asher wear out the diving board and Grandma and Aunt Denise. And watching the 2 of them eat is a treat in itself!

After those visits we headed down south where we first dropped Denise off at LAX in order for her to fly to Chicago where she works with MANY friends on a project she loves. From the airport we continued south to Tricia's family on the BEACH where we experienced NEW Haley and Eric activities! Grandpa got to see Haley do her pier jump with junior guards while Tricia and I were picking Eric up from engineering camp. Before we left we enjoyed a great crab lunch with Haley and laughed as Eric went around the table cracking everyone else's crab because he finished his shrimp quickly. Somewhere in the midst of all this Tricia and I took 2 classes at her gym and 2 long walks on the beach while grandpa was able to get some work done. Then, just as we headed home God protected Anthony while he was in a wreck on the freeway.

Most of all I feel truly blessed that each one of you are believers. I pray that we will each grow in our faith and encourage one another. I am so thankful that during this past year  Tricia and Anthony have found a new church home that their kids also enjoy and are getting involved in. I will continue to pray that the rest of us will do the same.

I truly have MUCH to be thankful for and the things I mentioned above are just a small portion of what God has blessed me with!

I like the part where the devotion said "Love the giver more than the gift." This helps me remember and to understand what we are studying and I need to work on that.  

My dad always comes home from a trip with a present. I need to be happy that my dad is home safely and not that he is bringing me a present. 

We are so blessed!
This is actually a topic that has been on my mind lately in regards to prayer.
I would like to (with my children) work on be more thankful of our blessing in prayer and not just at dinner and at bed.
I will keep you posted...