The Little Things

The little things. I recently realized how often I take so many little things for granted rather than being thankful for them. For instance, I drive against traffic going to and from work. Living in suburban Atlanta, this is a HUGE deal. I am a small town girl at heart, and sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic does not mesh with my small town loving self. Thankfully, I get to breeze along at 70 mph going north in the mornings, while everyone else creeps along going south.

Continuing on, my work week is only 4 days, I have a park within walking distance, and there is lots of greenery around my house (I LOVE having green space).

God knows how refreshing all of the above are to my soul, and in his goodness he placed me in a home and job that allow me to go against traffic and gives me all the other things I mentioned. It is so easy to take all of that for granted and think they "just are" or "just happened" or whatever.

Don't take me wrong, God would still be good if he gave me a job tomorrow that required me to drive an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I wouldn't like the traffic, but I know He would use something about the commute or the job to refine me and bring glory to himself.

God is not just behind the big events in my life, He is in the small and mundane also.

Also, I have clean water come out of my faucet whenever I want. I completely took this for granted until I had a friend move to Africa recently. She gets 1.5 gallons of water a day for showering/teeth brushing/cooking etc. She lives in a country where there is. no. rain. for months in a row. The only well that won't run dry is past the point of being able to be filtered/boiled/cleaned and is only fit for clothes washing. Really, they use it to wash clothes only because they must save the "clean" well water (that only is available during the rainy season) and their captured rain water for bathing/cooking/drinking during the dry months.  Anacondas and crocodiles live in the river, so that's a definite no-go! All that to say,  I've looked at my long, hot, every other day shower in a whole new light the past two months.

I am trying to be more intentional about stopping and thanking God for these things as I go through my day. It sounds cliche, but I want to have an attitude of thankfulness. More so, I want to be aware of God and His ever present care for me; particularly the small gifts of grace that are so easy to over look.