THANK YOU, GOD, FOR....DAY 17 of the30 DAYS OF BLESSINGS

I was "talking" to my friend, Sandra of Warehouse ArtChix, this morning and we were talking about how faithful God is, how His mercy and grace get us through every day and how He takes such good care of us. It felt good to talk to another faith-filled artist - we both commented on that. So, that was a good thing.
Then I left my sitting area - that's it above. I thought you might like a visual - the chair on the right is where I usually sit, laptop in lap, feet up on the ottoman...
Anyway, I left my sanctuary and wandered down the hall into the rest of the house.
I passed the main bath in the hall and my cleaning lady came out and told me that the tub was not draining, that the plumber had not fixed the problem, so, of course, she couldn't clean it.
Then I passed the guest room where I have about two dozen framed and sitting pieces of art to be put up so the decorating of that newly re-done bedroom will be finished, a pile of Christmas 'stuff' that is taking over a large corner of that bedroom (I admit that 'stuff' is not how I referred to it about 30 minutes ago), a closet that is overflowing and needs to be cleaned out so that Christmas 'stuff' can be stored in it, and then I walked through the kitchen which reminded me that I'm cooking the entire Thanksgiving dinner for us and another family.

I then headed back to my sitting area in my sanctuary and proceeded to cry.

Oh, that in itself is not so unusual but try and explain that to the cleaning lady who is now completely focused on getting the non-existent dust off of my dresser.

So I'm sitting here, now composed - it was just a momentary lapse of sanity - thinking of all of the things that I have to do, thinking of all of my health problems that have been limiting my participation in the simple day to day things, not to mention anything extra, blah, blah, blah.

And it hits me.
Hits me right in my heart....
God telling me that the longer I sit here and lament on everything in my life in this negative light; the longer I sit here not trusting Him, not leaning on Him, not allowing Him to go before me and make possible all that seems impossible.
I visualize a piece of paper with two columns......
on the left is the "Waaaaaa" list and on the right is the "BLESSINGS" list.
I picture myself filling in the columns and that's when God smacks me upside the head.

Does He smack anyone else?
He smacks me upside the head because He sees that I realize that the BLESSING column of this day dream is the longest by far.
Good grief, it's like "bam, bam, bam"......

• sitting area in my bedroom
• window that looks out into the pasture
• cleaning lady for goodness sakes
• more than one bathroom
• a kitchen to cook T.G. dinner in
• double oven!
• money to buy the T.G. groceries
• family and friends to share *some of my* dressing with (the pan I don't hide)
• a warm home
• children that love and respect me
• no addictions *do Snickers count?*
• a husband that cherishes me
• a passion that feeds my soul - my art

and then I start to slow down and give thought to what I list..........but look at what I listed without even having to think about it!

BLESSINGS
We all have them.
But do we all give the glory and thanks to the One responsible?
I guess because this is my blog that I'm allowed to denounce all other gods but the one and only true God if I want to.
And I want to.

I am so thankful that when I start to stray away from remembering my many, many blessings, that God is quick to pull me back into His fold and remind me that He is in charge.
The He will continue to be in charge if I let Him....
and all I have to do is focus on my blessings, give thanks to Him and get my bum in that guest room and start hanging some pictures....
COMPANY'S COMING!