Choosing to be thankful.

There are a lot of things I am good at. Things that come easy for me...and then there are things that are hard for me, and things that don't come easy. Being positive is way harder than being negative! I have to fight hard to not just let it slip out.

Yesterday I let it win. I had a pity party. A cry fest. "A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." This morning I even woke up feeling like that, and when I opened my eyes it was like Jesus said, "psst..we don't have to have that kind of day again today, its your choice. Choose to be thankful". Then I cried again. How selfish of me to dwell on me, and my feelings when there are so many that are going through so much more.

I'm not going to lie--looking at this mountain 300 miles away, it didn't seem as big as it does, standing at the bottom of it and looking up. It feels huge. Because it is huge. But it can be climbed. And gosh darn it, I will climb it, and live to tell about it!!

I have a sign hanging in the living room that says, "there is always, always, always something to be thankful for". I get smacked upside the head every time I look at it. There is so many people suffering around me.

If God doesn't do a miracle in little Ava's body, the doctors say she wont be here much longer. The God I know does do miracles and is the ultimate doctor. He will heal her. I am begging him to heal her here. I can not imagine what the Hunters are going through. I'm thankful.

Many are in extreme amounts of physical pain--pain that is sometimes unbearable. I can not imagine. I am thankful.

Some go to dumpsters to find food to feed their family. I can not imagine. I am thankful.

Today I am choosing to be thankful for the health of my daughter, the love of my husband, the support of my friends and family, the way the Lord provides for all of my needs, and that I don't have to think about climbing this mountain alone.

Miami is a sad place. People are mean. Sad. Lonely. Depressed. Angry. Out of place.

I may be the only smile they see today, and maybe just maybe, they will see the Light. This is my mission field.

Today, I am thankful and I am homesick. Terribly. But what I realized today is that I am even more homesick for Heaven. Where cancer doesn't threaten the life of Ava Hunter, people don't have to eat from dumpsters, pain is wiped out and orphans are forever in a home.