Count your blessings...

Today I received disheartening news that my friend and former co-worker had lost her 34 yr old husband. He left about 8:30 to go get medicine for their daughter. She put the kids to bed and was relaxing when she started to get concerned because he had not made it home yet and he had been gone for 2 hours. She called him but didn't get an answer so she called his parents. His mom stayed at the house in case the children woke up and she and her father-in-law went looking for her husband. They found his truck where it had gone down an embankment on the road that they live on. The truck was in the creek and he was pinned under it with his head underwater when they found him. I can't imagine the devastation that they must be feeling. She is beating herself up over it because after he left she found some medicine in the cabinet that would have worked so he hadn't really needed to go after all. Then she said... what if she had started looking sooner then maybe they could have found him in time. I just can't believe it. All day I have been thinking about how that could have been so many of us in the same situation. That could be our sons, daughters, husbands, wives, parents going through that very same thing. My heart is breaking for them and many prayers are going up on their behalf. I am counting my own blessings. I couldn't get through the day without letting Scott know just how very much he means to me. I thought about relationships in my own life. I thought about how sometimes things that happen are trivial and sometimes we don't realize it until its too late. This week in my devotion study on Esther one point has seemed very clear to me. Holding a grudge against someone who has hurt you may seem justified based on their actions but instead the grudge continues to hold you in bondage to them. Forgiveness is difficult but it humbles us and allows us the freedom to love again with a free heart. Today I am counting my blessings, especially those most precious in my life. I am so thankful for my family, immediate and extended. God has blessed me with them and I will honor Him by loving and cherishingthem.