I do not like to cook.  In fact, I hate to cook.  I am terrible at it.  It takes a long time, it makes a mess (that takes more precious time to clean up), and it never ends up tasting very good anyway.  I hate the entire process.  I even hate grocery shopping and meal planning.  They just serve as reminders of my shortcomings as a wife and mother.

I adore my family, and I want what is best for them.  I want to care for them and feed them well too.  I am just not any good at it.  It’s like a missing gene or something.  I can’t explain it.

Being married for two and half years, I would have thought I would be much better at it by now.  There have been minor improvements I guess, but I think this is an area that I will never be truly successful.  Take photographs of my beautiful family?  Sure!  No problem!  Feed them healthy and tasty meals?  Problem.

But I had the though last week while dreading the weekly trip to the store.  God has clearly been working on my heart and revealed to me that I shouldn’t look at this task of feeding my family as such a chore, but a true blessing.  It’s a blessing that I have this family to feed.  Well technically my husband feeds us cause he makes all the money really, but you know what I mean.  I was also feeling blessed as I perused the aisles full of meat, veggies, fruits, eggs, milk, bread, you name it.  How many people all over the world do not have the luxury of going to the grocery store to get their dietary needs.  Many have to labor hard for it.  Others have to travel long distances.  Still others do not have access to much of anything at all!

So many things, little things, to feel blessed for and I forget all the time.

Water.  We are blessed to have access to clean drinking water everywhere we go.  We can get water at the drive-thru, we can get a drink at Wal-mart from the water fountain, and we can drink water from our tap at home.  A young missionary from Bolivia was visiting our church a few weeks ago and she mentioned how crazy it was to her that in America we drink water straight from the tap in our own homes.  She said, in Bolivia, that is unheard of.  She told us that if you were lucky enough to have running water in your home, it wasn’t necessarily safe to drink.  Even the poor in this country are rich compared to so many across the globe.

So today, I thank the Lord for blessing me so.  I do not deserve any of these blessings, and they could be taken away at any moment.  However, because of His grace and love I have them for now, and I am thankful.  I am thankful for a family, the convenience of buying food for them and cooking it inside with electricity (even if I am not the greatest at it), and for clean water at my fingertips.

What are you thankful for today?