Thankfulness

How can we learn to really appreciate what we have? How easy it is to fall into the trap that the Pharisee did in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Isabelle's and Medge's brothers and Medge's husband now find themselves unemployed indefinitely from their profession as pig farmers due to the arrival in Mauritius of African Swine Fever. I still have my job.

Some friends of ours who used to go to church with us have a precious son who suffers from a multitude of food allergies which prevent even the occasional experience of normalcy that most of us enjoy. Julia caught a bug and threw up before bedtime Monday night, and although Isabelle had to get up with her once an hour that night, by the time I got back home Tuesday she was her adorable old self.

My cousins' cousins, two out of the three boys in their family, find themselves forever changed due to a car accident that left the younger one paralyzed from the waist down, and the middle one learning to swallow, talk and eat again after having brain surgery to remove a tumor. Their ages added together amount to my age, and I can't even imagine their plight.

A long-time friend of mine, at this time last year, suffered a miscarriage in the ninth month of her pregnancy. We await Chloe, with great anticipation, having been told by our doctor that Isabelle's pregnancy so far, is "perfect."

Another long-time friend of mine nearly died due to a heart defect combined with a virus that attacked his heart. I remain in sloppy shape, relying on walking to the bus and back after ten years of relying mainly on walking my dog a mile each night before bedtime.

Earlier this year, we bid a final farewell to a husband and father in our congregation who succumbed to colon cancer, after two years of fighting and living like he was dying. His wife and four children somehow continue to endure. Her neighbor and sister in Christ and three young children lost their husband and father to a psychotic meltdown almost five years ago. She ministers to the new widow and her new husband ministers to those who are addicted to anything or anyone besides Jesus.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I am thanking when I should be confessing. Please forgive me.