Living Life in True Abundance
It’s Friday in our house, grocery shopping day has come. We have four kids, and boy do they go through food fast! I’m scouring the fridge and pantry to put my list together for this next weeks food. I say aloud “Wow! We have nothing in here. It’s a good thing today is shopping day.” My three year old looks up at me and says “But mom, we have SO much food! We have cheese, and cucumbers, and cereal, and tortillas, and all of the things, mama!”
That’s when it hit me. We are abundantly blessed and unfortunately all we can see sometimes are the needs we feel we have.
What We See
Everyday we focus on the things we don’t have. Am I right? We wake up from sleep and what we typically talk about is the lack of sleep we got. When we go to make ourselves food, what we see is the lack of food we want in our own household.
Driving around the city we live in, we see the lack of stores or even the variety activities. We often focus on those things other cities have, whether that be hiking trails, mountains, beaches, stores, or our desired weather.
Even when it comes to our relationships, we can often focus on what we feel is missing. That could be the lack of romance from our partner or the time with them we feel we deserve. The friendships we have with others, well maybe they aren’t checking up on us enough, or giving us as much attention or love as we need. The kids that we have, well maybe they aren’t behaving as well as we’d like them to.
What We Actually Have
There is beauty in waking up every morning knowing that you got some amount of sleep. After all, we have some sort of bed instead of a sleeping outside.
The little amount of food we have in the pantry? Isn’t it so wonderful that we have something to nourish our bodies and not have to starve?
That city we live in, it’s beautiful in it’s own way, just like us. We get to go out and explore nature in whatever way we choose. If we see nothing else, may we see the fact that coffee shops are all around us. A mom can thrive off of a good cup of coffee!
If we have a spouse, we are lucky to have found someone who can put up with our own imperfections. We have someone who loves us and chose us, and that within itself is a beautiful thing.
Friendships are special! They are the family that chooses to love us everyday. Friends show up when we really need it, and they make sure to take care of us when we are in need.
Children are a special gift! They bring light into the world in such a unique way. If we have children, we are truly blessed!
Blessed
We as humans are truly blessed. Though we focus on the mess, the chaos, the lack of things or people we do or do not have, we are blessed. Though we focus on the problems people in our lives have, or the envy which comes from seeing what others do have, we are still blessed.
If the coronavirus has taught us anything, let it teach us how much we do really have. Often when things are taken from us like this virus has, we are able to recognize what we had in the first place. So for that, we should be grateful. Grateful our minds can see what we may have once not seen.
As Thanksgiving approaches us this week, let us learn to focus on the abundance in our lives. Help us see the good. Help us focus on the amount of relationships we have, or the amount of love we continually to get from others. Let us see life for what it really is, a life of abundance!
