Blessings

This past Wednesday, I was pretty convicted of some sins I have been struggling with the past few months. We were talking about blessings in our small group. What are blessings? How can we bless others? How do you define blessing? What are things in your life that are blessings that you may not see as such? Man. That last question really got me. I have been so....grumbly lately. I have been beyond blessed these past 4 months, but I seem to only be harping on the things I consider to be so negative, and those negative things are worldly! UGH. I hate my sin nature. I hate complaining about all the things I can't do and all the stuff I don't have.

I am definitely a product of The South. I love being a Southern girl, and I love what comes with that. I have been raised in a very humid climate, and now I am living in one of the driest places on the planet. Instead of being thankful for being away from the humidity, I complain about how much I miss it and about how dry it is here. I grew up watching the Braves, and, since I've been older, I have gone to several Braves games a year. I miss Turner Field. I miss going to Braves games on a whim. I miss taking day trips with my friends to The Ted and chopping til we drop. Another passion of mine is UGA football. Now that we are in kickoff month, I cannot help but want to be in Athens or want to get together with friends and family to watch the games. I have been watching Georgia football games with my dad since I was 5 days old. He taught me how to say "Go Dawgs!". I am complaining that I will have to watch the noon games at 8am Alaska time....why am I so ungrateful?

Instead of being thankful for this great adventure, I find myself almost looking for ways to compare it to "back home". Come on, Tab. Alaska is your home now. Where God sends you is home. Where you and your husband are--that is home. Sure, my heart will always long for The South and my comfort there, but Paul wrote from jail that he has learned to be content whatever the circumstances. And I cannot find a way to be content and excited for my new life in Alaska? That's garbage. This is SUCH an opportunity to grow in so many ways, but to also not keep it all to myself. This Army way of life is an opportunity to love greatly and witness boldly...to practice patience and faithfulness and resiliency...to impact the lives of others for The Gospel. Ha. And I'm complaining because why?? We hiked to a glacier on Saturday, and I found myself occasionally wondering the score of the Braves game instead of worshiping and being in complete awe of the works of my Creator. Umm--ALASKA IS BEAUTIFUL, AND MY GOD IS EVEN MORE LOVELY THAN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE!

While I was struggling with this whole complaining thing, my husband asked me to help him with some shingling up on the roof last night. I grumbled to myself and put it off for a few minutes thinking, "I really just want to blog about how blessed I really am, and he wants me to help with the stupid roof..." Wow. Reality check! So, there I went, up to the roof. I was prepping the shingles so Chris could lay them (we are a great team). The first part of my time, I mumbled under my breath about how awful shingle prep was and how much I hated it.....then God lovingly slapped me across the face and said, "WAKE UP, TABITHA. I HAVE PROVIDED YOU WITH A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD. PREP THE DANG SHINGLES!" Ok, so maybe those weren't His words exactly, but close enough. Boom. That finally did it. Ha. I can be so stubborn. What a sinful fool to complain about working on our roof when there are people all over the world who will never sleep under a roof a day in their lives.

God, thank you for my blessings. Thank you for the adventure of marriage. Thank you for the adventure of Alaska. Thank you for your creation. Thank you for loving me despite my sin nature, and thank you for seeing me through the cleansing blood of your Son. (And thank you for allowing me to be born in The South and that my baseball and football teams are awesome!)