Blessed

Yesterday I heard of a friend of a friend had a massive heart attack and is not expected to live. He has a wife and 2 little girls in elementary school. Today I got a text message letting me know about a girl in my 8th grade small group whos father just got out of heart surgery and has not woken upAnd the Doctors are not expecting him to. Everyday, I'm keeping up with the progress of Garren Janes, a 14 year old boy who collapsed suddenly at school and has been in the hospital for 2 months and is slowly recovering. (you can read about his story here). Unless God works some kind of miracle, in the next few days there are going to 2 little elementary school girls and an 8th grade girl without a father, and 2 wives without a husband. Right now there is a mother, father, and two sisters are working tirelessly trying to do everything they can to help their son/brother recover from this brain injury. 
All of these families lives have changed drastically and they are grieving some kind of loss.
My heart breaks for these families and i know there are hundreds of smiliar stories and hurting families. 

Because of this, I can't help but think of how blessed I am. 
I am reminded of how much I take for granted, how selfish And discontented I am so often. 
We may not have alot of money, we may not drive the nicest vehicles, we may not have the biggest house or a full take of gas, we may eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a month because we can't afford any more groceries.
But I have beautiful one bedroom apartment, A husband who loves me, enough money to pay bills and keep us from being hungry. 2 vehicles that got us from A to B. 2 great jobs, a wonderful Godly family whom are all in Good health. God has truly blessed me. The next time I am tempted to complain about how small our apartment is, not having enough money to buy an extra shirt or go out to dinner, I will try to remember the heartache that my friends are going through and I hope I will become grateful for how God has blessed me. 

I know that at any moment God could choose remove my own or my families health, He could choose to take our money away, or send us through a tremendous storm. If he so chooses, I hope that I will continue to praise Him and give Him the glory as the Janes family has done. 

For now, I will praise the Lord and proclaim that I know it is Him who has blessed us and I am truly grateful! 
Lord forgive me for bing so selfish  and discontented. Thank you for the reminder of how you have blessed me!