Okay, so I got up this morning and took steps — literally –  to starting my day right. I jogged for the first time in years! (A topic for another blog….) Then I had a bowl of cereal, made a perfect cup of coffee,  grabbed my bible, my phone, my iPad and one of my favorite devotionals, and headed out to the balcony for a delightful morning of quiet time, prayer, introspection, focus and blogging. With the exception of the slight humidity in the air and the haze hanging between me and the Rocky Mountains it was a perfect morning. Everything is green, the weather is nearly perfect, the birds were singing, the sky was this amazing shade of blue. How I love summer here in Colorado!

I got situated in one of the best inventions in the world, an anti-gravity deck chair, opened my devotional and found that God had, as always, penned this one just for me, for today. Sensing His inspiration (and gentle conviction), I pulled out my iPad to begin to blog about my experience — with the hope of perhaps inspiring someone here as well. Unfortunately, my iPad would not cooperate.

I went to log in and not only would it not accept my password, it wouldn’t accept my login. When I requested a new password I learned that the login was completely changed from my usual one, and when I logged in with the new password it asked me to create an account. Enter frustration.

And my day had been going so well up to that point!

So this is the interesting thing: What God had spoken to me in the devotional was that He has blessed me with SO many wonderful, amazing blessings, but I am too distracted by the things I don‘t have to appreciate what He’s given me.

Ironic that the scene played out as it did. Here I have this amazing tool in my hands, and no, it wasn’t cooperating in that moment, but I let the frustration take over — and in fact, I let it eat up my time as I tried to get WordPress — and my iPad to cooperate.

Funny? Coincidental? Well I didn’t laugh in the moment, and I don’t really believe in coincidences. I do believe however, that God can use any circumstance to speak to us.

So what did I receive from Him this morning? I was ‘convicted’ (ever so gently) to remember that His blessings are all around me, that His provisions are blessings (even when they don’t work as they should), and I need to ‘tame’ my internal responses bringing them into submission to the gratitude that should persist (and can persist!) through every circumstance of my day.

I missed out on a blessing this morning by allowing frustration to rule my emotions. Hopefully next time I will catch on to what God is teaching me a little sooner and miss less of His blessing.

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB)

I hope your day is full of the awareness of His blessings all around you!

Joyfully!
Mary