november thankfulness

a few of my friends are participating in a facebook challenge to update their status daily in november with something they are thankful for. it is a lead up to thanksgiving and the purpose is to help you focus on what you are thankful for and not "other" things. while i understand we are to be thankful all the time every day of every year, it is nice to get "back on track" much like we do with new year's resolutions. so instead of facebook, i will be putting my daily thankfulness on my blog in the "snippets" section - right column at the top, if you've never seen it before.

i hope you can find encouragement from it as i know i will. maybe it will remind you of what you are blessed with and thankful for. lately, many of my friends seem to be discouraged or struggling with seeing God's plan and purpose in everything and taking it all in stride. i know i can get like that too and i will be praying this month that the hardships we face (whether real or imagined) can be faced with God's strength and not our own.

i have been thinking a lot lately about James 4. it talks about not loving the world because that makes us enemies to God and the perspective we should use when looking at our life. specifically verses 14-15:

"yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."' esv.