What a Blessing!

I'm finding joy this day in thinking on my blessings. God has bestowed many, many wonderful things along the journey that have made life joyful...family, music, church, job, friends...just to name a few. Those are the obvious ones that bring happiness most of the time, blessings that are easy to identify as blessings.  But the blessings that overwhelm me, are the ones that are not so positive from the start, those things that hit you in the gut.  Mom's cancer, losing a loved one, emotional stress, debt...these are all things that I can now look at and say, "What a blessing!" Why, you ask? Because, to me, blessings are things that draw me close to God. Blessing comes when the Spirit shows up and life with Jesus gets real...tangible. The blessings from suffering are worth so much more to me than the blessings from rejoicing. My soul has been deeply impacted more so by those things that cause me pain, than those that cause me instant happiness. So do I hope for suffering? Heavens, no! But I can say that I do not fear suffering, for I know the blessing that I will receive will be far greater. Glory be to God for He is the Giver of all good things!