Oh how I love fall! Yesterday, I was waiting for the kids to come home on the bus and I was just struck with the incredible beauty all around me. Wow! Hasn't God blessed us? It was then that I began to think of some things. I run out of water every day. We even stopped recycling our water automatically and only recycle it once a week or so. I have now stopped using my dishwasher and wash my dishes by hand. Our showers are short and sweet. But after 4 showers over a 2 hour period and 2 loads of laundry, I am usually facing an empty well. It used to take only 1/2 hour or so to fill up... but now it is taking a much, much longer time. Even then, it usually stops if I do much at all. And... recently... I have been faced with much more laundry then usual. So, I have found myself with more moments then I care to admit... tempted to break down sobbing rather then rejoicing. But yesterday, I found myself beginning to think about God's true gifts. Sure - I could complain and grumble... but really... why? God has given us plenty of water. We have just what we need to survive. Warren Barfield came to our church a few months ago and shared a story of a mission trip he went on in another country (can't remember the country). A small boy (5 or 6 years old or so) had a job for his family. He had to travel miles down (and back up) a steep hill to a place in the mountain that everyone in the valley got their water from. There were lines of people, everyday, who stood for their turn to fill up a gallon jug of water just so their family could survive. After waiting hours to fill up his jug, he would have to walk back up the mountain to take it home... only to turn around the next day and do it all over again. Now I may not be remembering the details exactly accurate... but you get my point. All I have to do is turn the faucet on and my water is there. And when it isn't, I just have to wait a few hours to have more come. But how can I complain? There are so many people in the world who don't have even one blanket to keep them warm. Who am I to look in the face of God and grumble? I am humbled and ashamed at that thought. I complain at the little inconveniences in my life rather then rejoice in them. I am so blessed to have the laundry that I have, to have the water that I have, to have the things I have. Even in the darkest of any moment in my life..... I still have far more then the millions who face "real" darkness in their lives. Those who are fearing for their lives, daily, due to war or poverty or sickness; those who have no fresh water or have to travel miles to retrieve any, those who have no shelter over their heads or those who are facing broken homes or the lost of a loved one. And even in all these things I mentioned, there are believers who are rejoicing and not complaining. Believers who have found their strength in Christ and who have found true peace. Their circumstances have not caused them to give up; instead, they have drawn nearer to Christ. Just look at Paul and his life. Read about Paul and Silas in Acts 16.