Wednesday, September 22, 2010

365 Days of Blessings - Day 116

365 Days of Blessings, Day 116
The blessings today are blessings that have been found in a refiner's fire kind of situation.

1. God gives us the gift of repentance, which is a gift of faith.

2. Struggling with, and repenting of my own sin in a tough situation, and having faith that God will heal me.

3. The phrase "slow to anger and abounding in love" can be found five times in the Bible. All of them are referencing God's amazing grace. See Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8, and Jonah 4:2.

4. Learning more about my own understanding of privacy, and what it means to respect other's privacy. I grew up in a gossipy little town. I married a man who values his privacy highly, and does not like to intrude on the privacy of others. I have agreed with him most of the time, but have learned recently that others may actually want me to intrude on their privacy and ask them about even the most painful aspects of their lives. In fact, I have recently been seen at fault for not poking my nose into someone else's business. And I thought I was doing the right thing by waiting for that person to tell me. In fact, at one point the person seem to indicate that he wanted to speak to me about something, and then didn't. I assumed that this meant the subject matter was too personal. This has been a hard learning experience for me, but it is thought-provoking, and I value the gift of learning, and growing. Each of us has such a unique perspective on life.

5. I am so thankful that I can hear and read an angry diatribe about my actions, and go to God with my reaction, instead of sharing my immediate feelings on the matter . . . which were not pleasant.

6. I have learned that it is best not to wait for someone else to deal with a painful situation, even if I feel I might be overstepping my boundaries of friendship, or even my boundaries as a leader of a team. When asked to step aside by more than one person in leadership above me, next time I will respectfully disagree.

7. Receiving amazing support and encouragement from friends and family has given me a good idea of who my real friends are, and how blessed I am with their friendship.

8. Knowing that this may all be a great inner struggle for one of my fictional characters someday . . . all of life's ups and downs make good compost for stories, especially when mixed together, stirred, and allowed to rest for a while.

9. Waking up with less flu symptoms than yesterday.

10. Sunshine in a blue sky, with a few last blackberries to pick outside.

Scripture Blessings:
"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'
Jesus answered, 'It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.''" Matthew 4:1-4

Psalm 19:14
"May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O Lord, my Rock and my
Redeemer."

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