When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. Tecumseh

The substance of a good life usually lies in the ability to appreciate the small things. While it’s true that we all have big things that we look forward to and genuinely enjoy (like that healthy new grandbaby), it’s really the accumulation of the small serendipities that make life so grand.

For instance, we’ve been a little dry in the part of the country I live in, but today we had an inch or two of wet snow. As I was out shoveling this frozen, white gold, I couldn’t help but think about all the times that I have grumbled about having to mess with the stuff. Why do we do that? Why do pray for moisture and then gripe about the work that comes with it?

Human nature, I guess, but wouldn’t life be different if we learned to look at its blessings, rather than its inconveniences?

Today, I am grateful that my wife and children are faithful to God. We have good health. We have plenty to eat. We have cars that run most of thetime. We have a wonderful church family. We have the grace of God. We have the blood of Christ. We mess up some times and slip into sin, but we have the opportunity to come back. We – every single one of us – have the opportunity to be saved, if we want to be.

I know that sometimes we are in a drought--that our loved ones are sick, that our nation has troubles. I know that many things are truly distressing in the world we live in, but we are going to win in the end…if we are on God’s side.

Though I have spent an inordinate amount of time in the past with the wasted grumblings of a selfish man too blind to see the blessings heaped right in front of his very eyes, today I am thankful… for the snow… for my family… for my Savior…

And tomorrow, I’m going to try to do the same. How about you?

Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4