Guest Blogger: Counting Your Blessings

**First I want to send a huge thank-you hug to Joy. She is SO kind to let me post on her blog and I am overjoyed to share my heart with you today. Thank-you Joy!**

First off, my name is Emma and I blog over at Rescue the Orphaned. 

Today I want to share with all you lovely readers about I struggle I know everyone has. Being genuinely thankful for the numerous blessings God has bestowed upon us. 

I know I, and probably most of you, take for granite so much of what I have. My family, my home, my friends, my life. I know when we have to come up with something we are thankful for it is usually one of those. But are we truly thankful?

We identify those things as things we should be thankful for. However, I don't think we are thankful from the heart. Even now, I can say I am not truly thankful. I see everything that I have been blessed with but from the  heart, i'm just like, "Yep, I've got house, and a nice family. Thanks God." How pathetic is that?

Think about the last time you just sat and thanked God for every moment he has blessed you with. When did you last thank him for dying for you? When did you think about every little thing that has an impact on your life? 

Two years ago our dishwasher broke. I am the dishwasher. For two weeks I had to wash every single dish by hand. When we got a new dishwasher, Boy! Was I thankful for dishwashers! Funny though, a month later I was back complaining about having to put dishes into the washer. 

A dishwasher isn't the greatest example, I know. However we think, "Once something is taken away, we become thankful for it." This is true at the moment, but most of the time we forget the lesson once we have our blessing back.

I have seen poverty from a car window, train, and bus. I seen cardboard huts called homes. Beggars lying on  streets in rags. For the moment I felt pity, and sorrow. Here in America, my home, I am so selfish. I live in a beautiful home, I have a bedroom all to myself, clothing on my body, and I find reasons to complain. "I have nothing to wear." "My bedroom is too small." "My room is too cold."

What does it take to be truly thankful?

Obviously we need God in our lives. Without him it's impossible. We need to truly seek him everyday, and ask him to help our hearts be thankful. We are human, sinful creatures who are hopeless. Only a loving God and Father can love us each and everyday despite our ungratefulness.

Source: all-things-bright-and-beyootiful.tumblr.com via Emma on Pinterest

**Thanks for letting me lecture you all, but truly this is a me thing. I am guilty of everything I talked about! I the Lord spoke something to you through me! I'd love for you to visit me at Rescue the Orphaned! ~Emma**