Kids of Courage and #60-63

Sometimes our praise is a sacrifice, meaning sometimes it is really hard to see the things to be thankful for. Temporary blindness. I pray that my mind will continue to be renewed as I choose thankfulness over grumbling. Choosing to press on and just trust God in every circumstance is not easy, if not purposing to do it we will most definitely won't. Life just plain sucks at times and when it does that is when our praise is worth the most.

The other morning at breakfast I was reading a Kids of Courage about Burma to the children. It was full of stories of brave children who were being persecuted. Some of the children lost their moms and dads and were taken in by Buddhist monks. Some of these children were being beaten because they would not renounce their faith in Jesus Christ. Our discussion was taking off as I asked each of my children if they would be strong enough if they lost Joe and I. If they knew enough scripture by memory?

My oldest, my step-son, works out almost everyday. He is only 16 but looks like he 1s 24. Not tall and skinny at all. He stands six foot two inches and weighs 180. He is all muscle because he works out almost everyday lifting weights. He can bench 300#! This did not happen overnight, he started out as a chubby little boy who became this self disciplined young man. I used Isaac as the example paralleling his efforts to what we need to do.

If we "exercises" our faith by doing simple things, like for one of my children it would be to sweep the floor, do it well, do it with out complaining or asking for help. Just get in and do it. Do it cheerfully and do your best and try to get better. If we can learn to accomplish these tasks that "get to us" cheerfully maintaining our joy then we are building up our faith muscles. If the joy of the Lord is our strength and we want to endure tribulations we must use everyday opportunities to exercises that joy even when it is a sacrifice.

#60 Thankful for inspiration.

#61 Thankful for hot coco and whip cream and parlor games after dinner tonight.

#62 Thankful that my children like me :) Noah went through his pile of ancient birthday card and letters etc. In it he found that more than half of them were from me and as he read them I could just tell he not only loved reading them all over again but he liked me bigger too. He and I have been really enjoying each others company lately. Two year olds can be nice and so can teenagers!!! Thankful for all these stages, they are all so wonderful.