Dear God....

Dear God,

First, thanks for all of the rich blessings and opportunities directed our way lately. Who can find things to complain about when so much is worth celebrating? Thanks for spring flowers. Thanks for little children. Thanks for little birds. Thanks for kind people, even those who care too much when you wish they wouldn't. Thanks for trials and troubles that make us stronger. Thanks for a bounty of good, clean, and healthy food we have so readily available. Thanks for water with which to stay clean and hydrated. Thanks for a warm, dry, place to sleep.

Thanks for vehicles that run. Thanks for jobs that allow us to pay our bills. Thanks for health and physical bodies. Thanks for the opportunity to get dirt under my fingernails and to watch things grow. Thanks for giving me a best friend in my spouse, and for making him better every single day. Thanks for great parents and siblings. Thanks for the ability to connect with old and new friends.

Thanks for the beauty of words, and for the opportunity to find beauty where it's not easily found. Thanks for miracles that are as bounteous as the stars, and for heartache that carves into our hearts a place for greater vision. Thanks for opportunities to serve others, and for the way those acts of service always come back to serve us much greater than we gave.

Thanks for the gift of choice, the chance to stretch, the need to grow. Thanks for patience, and for giving me the opportunity to wait for thy timing, because it's always the right time. Thanks for giving me what I need, even when it isn't what I think I need at the time.

Thanks for the chance to live in a world where bitter things happen so that I don't forget the sweet, and so I can help make it better. Thanks for sending thy Son, for giving us all the gift of everlasting life. Thanks for loving us in spite of ourselves, for wanting us to always be better than we are today, and for giving us a perfect example that makes us yearn to be even better than we think we might ever become.