praise!

while i'm here, i guess i'd better capture this moment.
i have felt convicted before about missing out on the opportunity to praise God with my limited time here, so i'm going to take this opportunity & it's not going to pass me by :) hopefully it's not that temporary, but it's worth noting. i dare to hope that it will last...

this morning i was thinking about my life lately & how over the past few months i have been SO blessed... at the beginning of this fall, i remember realizing how beautifully content i felt. looking back there have been many times where one area of my life or another [family relationships, finances, friendships] has been a huge burden on my heart, causing stress & worry that distracted me from the good. i aim to shift my focus because i know that in life there will be plenty of this, & my perspective will make all the difference... but as i look around me now, i can't help but praise God. my relationships with my parents & brother are probably better than they've ever been [even with the other brother far away]. that's not to say that i'm much better at keeping in touch, but there is peace there & i am able to enjoy time with them to a degree that i don't think i have before. i have a job that i seriously enjoy, at which i feel valued & at home. i love my roommates & look forward to fun adventures with them. although i get caught up in busyness sometimes, i'm so excited now to have things relatively in order [as of this week] so that i can do the things i've been waiting to do - like read through that stack of books i've been collecting, invest in my Bible studies, paint, quilt, write letters... yeah okay enough of the personal business :]

the thought that struck me most this morning was this: i have no idea what my future holds. i know that it will be good, but i don't know that it will be easy, & chances are it won't... this may sound pessimistic, but please just view it as an opportunistic thought:

i have no guarantee that i will ever love my life as much as i do now, so i am going to praise Him now while it's easy so that when it's not so easy, i will be resolved.

if i have no tomorrow or no 'better' - if this is the pinnacle of my life, then this will have been enough. i recognize that the comfort i have now is already above & beyond what i deserve or need. thank you Jesus for being so good to me <3