Do you ever people watch? Do you ever people pray? I do. I see strangers at the park, or on the beach, or at the grocery....and I pray for them. They are very general prayers, yet, in a way very specific. I pray for their souls, and that if they don't know God, that He will pursue them, and that they will respond. I suppose I should be bold enough to share my Christ with them on the spot, but I confess that I am not. Usually I am too rushed, pulled in a thousand different directions, with kids in tow, so I pray.

We have been listing what we are grateful for everyday here on this blog, during the month of November. It has been good for me in many ways. I have loved hearing your gratitude, and it has encouraged me to hear from both strangers, and old pals. It has occurred to me as we have shared together in this exercise, that we tend to only list those things that are good. That is natural I suppose. It has been true in my life, that it is when I have struggled most, that God has taught me the most. I am grateful for those times, as hard as they are.

Today I know of a woman who's husband has decided he loves someone else, and she and her daughters are shocked, a couple that have been searching for jobs for going on 4 months, and seek to only do the Lord's will, and I would venture that they are discouraged, a family who's son is making bad choices, and throwing away all that the Lord had planned for him, and they are so sad, a wife and two kids who are facing the first holidays without their husband and father since his death last February, and they are hurt, A man who has enjoyed good health all his life and now has to come to terms with growing old, and he is depressed, A family that adopted a little girl , just a month ago, and now face her open heart surgery in just 2 weeks, and they are afraid. There is a lot of pain in this world, and I confess I have my own also, but in the midst of all this, we can encourage, uplift, pray for, listen to, and generally care for the hurting souls all around us.

And they can find something to be thankful for too.

Play along, won't you?

Today I am grateful for:

- The valleys, as that is when He has grown me most

- A Pastor that "rightly divides the word of truth" so succinctly. Even if I have to go to a steak house, with only 12 other people to hear it. (long story)

- A house that has been on the market for 18 months, because it is teaching me to wait on the Lord.

- The empty wheelchair in the family room, as it reminds me that Crockett does not need it anymore, because now he is perfect.

- The humility that comes when my children mess up, because it is then that I remember our need for a savior, and his ability to forgive us all.