Being Thankful For Much

The other day when the staff gathered to pray, the air was heavy with all the concerns and prayer requests; people in pain, people grieving, people lost and when we broke off into our small groups, I felt saddened by the news.  One lady in our group began to pray by thanking God for the blessings in our life, praising Him because He loves us and as she prayed, my heart felt encouraged and I was reminded of how much I had to be thankful for.  That day I went on an excursion with my class and two other classes and we had a good time together.  I was thankful for my class and for the two other adults who accompanied us.  It was fun!

However, even though I know it's important to have a positive attitude, sometimes I struggle with the  uncertainty of my future and the enormity of the end of year tasks coming up.  Some of it's good, like the social events but some of it can be wearying, such as the writing of reports.  This morning I woke up with my throat stinging and my head not wanting to leave the support of my pillow.  I ached all over and yet I had too much to do so had to get up.  I checked my email and read the following by the author Andy Andrews.

"How to be happy when you don't feel happy."

I groaned.  I knew what was coming next and I didn't want to read it.  I want to be allowed to feel unhappy, stressed and achey all over.  Other people do it and get away with it.  Besides, today is Saturday so why shouldn't I feel that way since I won't be in anyone else's way.....  I continued reading.

• No one wants to follow a grouch
• You have to become someone whom others want to follow
• Choose to be grateful
• Most people exist in life without anyone telling them how great they are
• Learn how to vocalize the things we are grateful for having in our lives

I have really enjoyed reading some of the facebook statuses of my friends from the US.  They have been focussed on recording daily something they are thankful for and some have even included photos.  I know I need to choose to be grateful and at the beginning of this year, I had started a photo thankfulness blog but then had difficulties of uploading the photo when my laptop destroyed my SD card and it was no longer safe to put SD cards straight into the laptop.  Although I have since found a solution to that problem, I didn't continue with that blog.

I do have many reasons to be thankful and the first thing that comes to my mind is that I am loved.  I have so many wonderful people in my life, both family and friends and some of you have no idea the impact your love has in my life.  You are only a phone call or skype call away, you are available for me, you make me laugh and you don't give up on me.  You hear me when I cry and you don't walk away.  I am thankful for you!

I am going to have an early night tonight because I am physically unwell but a good night of sleep might help.  I went to school today and oddly enough, I was the only one there so I did get some work done which makes me feel a little more organised and ready to write reports.  I looked up an ad again of a job that I might like to have.  The other day when I read the ad, I felt discouraged but since then the ad has been slighly changed and I know I can do that job.  I also know that if it is the job I am meant to have, then God has it under control so I am feeling a little more hopeful.

This past week, there has been a bookfair at the school so I have been avoiding the library for that reason.  However, I had to go there to choose 3 books for awards for my students so I finally got there.  After I had chosen the books, Aleysia laughingly waved the catalogue in my face and I swept it aside as I swept up books, CDs, posters and anything else that took my fancy, into my arms.  I put them on her desk and paid for them.  Ahhh, the joys of Koorong!  I played the CD as I worked today and realised that a few of my favourite songs from this year were on it.  I hadn't even checked but I was certainly thankful they were on it as it will save me downloading the songs from iTunes.

It's the weekend.  I will take some time to be thankful that God has His hand in my life, that He loves me more than I can measure and that He does have a plan and purpose for my life.

Thank you for loving me.