Sunday, February 10, 2013

Moment of Appreciation

For my first post of February I'm going to write something that may seem a bit like bragging but it's not. This post is written with a spirit of awe and a humble heart. I am truly thankful for all special people God has placed in my life and all the blessings he has given me. 

It happened in the middle of a routine day. I was just going through my typical daily work day routine. The moment passed quickly. It was an almost immeasurable amount of time inhabited by a cluster of thought. But the emotions that the moment invoked will stay with me for, what I hope will be, a long time.  

I was parked in a space in front of a convenience store about to go in and refill my 23 oz. plastic container. Because it would be a quick "in and out" venture I wondered if I needed to lock my car. 

I looked to the right at the front passenger side of the car and saw my back pack which had my new Kindle Fire HD safely tucked away in one of it's pouches. Down on the floor was the padded brief case with my laptop computer. On the seat beside me were my cell phone and my Ipod Classic. They were only a few inches away from the XM Radio receiver mounted on my dashboard. I decided to lock my car.  

As I went about my business inside the store I realized something I had, somehow, come to take for granted. I had more electronic technology in my Saturn Vue than the Apollo astronauts used to go to the moon and back. By the way, the Vue's odometer had just turned over 148,000 miles that day. I've had it since there was 19,000 on it.

It was in that moment I realized what a blessed life I've lived over the last 15 years. It's not just the possessions. They are just collateral benefits to what I'm referring to. 

If 20 years ago someone from the future would have appeared and told me that at the age of 52 I would have the wife, family and life I have now I never would have believed them. 

The people who love me, the things I'm fortunate enough to have, and the list of places I've been (a pair of trips to Walt Disney World tops that list) since moving to Kentucky are all amazing to me.

God has bestowed me with a life I don't deserve. I am absolutely humbled by the overwhelming awe I feel when lay in bed at night and count my blessings. 

As egotistical and self-absorbed as I am most of the time, I am often preoccupied with situations with which I am unhappy or things I want but can't have.

I need to be more thankful and appreciative of all that I DO have. It could all go away just as easily as it came. 

With this post I am making the commitment to humbly and continuously be aware of my blessings. I don't ever want to  take the life I have for granted. In addition, I will do my best to give more of what I have to bless others. 

I guess realizations like this are the lessons God intends me to learn when he gives me moments like I had this week.






















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