Hidden Blessings

God continually amazes me. He is always so good, loving, caring, forgiving towards His children. God loves to give big and small blessings in hidden places. My heart and vision can get clouded at times and off kilter from Christ. This prevents me from experiencing the silver lining of blessings that God has for me. I would like to share a few of the hidden blessings that have come my way in the last few weeks.

A family from church moved 200 miles away recently. This family is dear to my heart. They lived down the street from my house, I attended a home fellowship (Bible study) in their home that was lead by the husband/father of this family, I taught their kids how to swim, attended their kids musicals and plays, they invited me over on those super hot nights to get away from the heat. . . Just good friends that I love. Before they took off, they asked me if I wanted to go to a local amusement/animal park. Eileen told me that she asked the kids about who they should ask to go with them, the kids immediately responded , "Miss Shelly!!!". I was so tickled to hear their response, I just had to go with them. Had a headache and was a little dizzy by the end of the day from one too many roller coasters but had a wonderful time with them. What a nice little piece of the silver lining of blessing. I am reminded that saying good bye to people I care about is hard (have had to say good bye to a few dear friends this summer. I miss you Charity, Alex, Eileen, Matt, Dustin, Emily).

Another dear family from my church had me over for dinner last week. Time and schedules prevent me from spending more time with them but they are the type of friends that it does not matter how long it has been since we have had good talk, we pick right up where we left off. The kids always give me a big hello and a squeeze to warm my heart. At dinner a cute blessing happened right after Ken finished praying for the meal, Bryce the youngest- a 3 year old, said "I want to pray, I want to pray". We all continued to bow our heads and Bryce prayed, "God I want to thank you for everything in the world. Thank you that Shelly could be here for dinner, I wish she could be here more 'cuz I love her." Ohhhhh, so sweet. We all chuckled at his cuteness. Had a yummy dinner, thanks Carol, and a great time talking after dinner.

Last night I made dinner for a family in my church because the wife/mother had brain surgery a few weeks ago to remove a tumor. When I arrived to deliver the dinner, the family invited me to sit and chat for awhile. I really did not know this family nor did they know me. Many of times I have heard and said myself, that when you give or serve you receive back so much more of a blessing than you have given. We sat and talked, some about the details of our lives but also about how God is working through this hard trial that this family is going through. Here I was going to encourage them yet I was the one encouraged and blessed. Pretty incredible how God works in that way.

This family invited me to stay for dinner but I had already made plans with my family, which lead to another hidden blessing. My mom knew that I would need dinner and time to relax after I dropped this meal off. What a blessing this turned into. I did not realize that in bringing a meal to this family I would run into tons of commute traffic. It took me over an hour to get to the house with the meal, then our nice visit and back in the car again to drive to my parents home. I was hungry and tired by the time I got there. What a blessing to go to Mom and Dad's, dinner all ready and waiting for me. Mom made home made Sloppy Joe's and green beans. Oh it was yummy. The food was good and it was wonderful to see my mom, Dad and Grandmother. My family is a huge blessing to me. Love them mucho.

There are so many more hidden blessings that I could share. I encourage you to look for the hidden blessings in your life and to thank God for them.