Counting Blessings.

Blessed. We really are, aren’t we? We like to pretend we are not, but we are, we really are.

I’ll go ahead and venture to say that most anybody reading this is blessed in the following ways:

1. A place to live. An estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide. That doesn’t even include people living in bad conditions, or substandard housing.
2.  Access to clean water. 780 million people lack access to clean water. That’s over 2.5 times the population of the United States.
3.  Food. 15 million children die, each year, from hunger. 800 million people around the world suffer from hunger and starvation. An estimated 20,864 people will starve to death, today.
4.  An education. Almost one billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or write their name.
5. Freedom. Almost 1.5 billion people today live in Communist countries.

We too easily forget. If the internet is out for a day, I will complain. If I have to buy a tank of gas, I will complain. I should be thankful that I even have electricity—much less the internet. I should be thankful that I can afford to buy a tank of gas.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

This is the time of year when we all pretend to be a lot more thankful for things than we really are. Let’s make it real, and let’s make it last. Thankfulness should not be confined to one month of the year.

 

 

sources: http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/, http://www.statisticbrain.com/world-hunger-statistics/, http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats, http://geography.about.com/od/lists/tp/communistcountries.htm,