And so I am back! This article was 4 months in the making. 😀
Don’t worry, I am not writing about everything that happened in the last 4 months that I was hibernating here on WordPress. Because this article will surely end up as a dissertation. lol
I was actually planning on trying something new for this article. Something that I haven’t tried before – just a list of the things that I am grateful for, which I want to share before I turn 41 in December.
Here it goes:
1. I thank God for my loved ones who, despite our flaws and conflicts, I can still call family.
2. I thank God that I don’t have a child because I told God that if I can’t raise the kid the way that He wants, then I don’t want to raise another broken generation.
3. I thank God that He led me to remote work and the freelancing industry. Otherwise, if I insisted working in a full-time office-based job, I may be successful professionally, but I won’t make it past 30 years old given our family’s breast cancer history (both sides of my family).
4. I thank God for the safe travels and protection, having lived in different locations for the past 40 years.
5. I thank God I never lacked anything – the provisions were overflowing.
6. I thank God that I got to meet people from different walks of life, for it widened my perspective on so many things.
7. I thank God for the spiritual family because I won’t be here if I wasn’t born again.
8. I thank God for sending people who I realized later on were angels sent to provide help when I needed it most.
9. I thank God I am still healthy despite 40 years of surviving.
10. I thank God because He answered most of my prayers.
11. I thank God for bringing me to different places where I could learn – not just in the institutions where I graduated from, but also in the communities where social experiences became my teacher.
12. I thank God for entrusting to me and placing under my care a portion of His beautiful creations, from plants to animals.
13. I thank God I still get to see the beauty of life despite its tragedies.
14. I thank God for the skills and talents He has gifted me with for they paved the way to bring glory to His name and serve His kingdom.
15. I thank God for the courage and the wisdom to be intentional in living each day, keeping in mind tomorrow is never promised.
16. I thank God that I get to share my faith with the world without the persecution that the early Christians have endured.
17. I thank God that I can see the needs of His people and pray for them.
18. I thank God that the blessings I receive, I get to share them with people without expecting anything in return.
19. I thank God for giving me the choice to forgive and the chance to be forgiven.
20. I thank God for free will.
21. I thank God that I can walk through fire without any fear of being consumed by it.
22. I thank God because I have a glimpse of what Heaven will be like through His Word.
23. I thank God that I can celebrate my wins and even my losses knowing that He makes everything work for my own good.
24. I thank God that He has chosen me to be His daughter and called me His own.
25. I thank God because His mercy and His love never cease.
26. I thank God because I get to teach the young generations what it’s like to be a Christian and a believer today in the society that we have now.
27. I thank God that I have no fear of the future because He is already there.
28. I thank God for the countless times He has placed me back on the right path every time I am being led astray.
29. I thank God because we still have leaders who rise up to God’s calling for them.
30. I thank God we never run out of solutions when faced with the impossible.
31. I thank God that we can run to Him anytime, wherever we are.
32. I thank God that He turns every obstacle in life into an avenue to display His power, His mercy, and His grace.
33. I thank God for making prayers not just a way to make our requests known, but for us to have a deeper relationship with Him.
34. I thank God for worship songs that pacify the soul when words aren’t enough.
35. I thank God for the Word, for it is the compass of my life.
36. I thank God for revealing Himself to me when I asked for His presence.
37. I thank God because there is no other God like our God, because He is always in control and His Name is above all other names.
38. I thank God for the seasons He has brought me through because He made me see that He is unchanging in every single one of them.
39. I thank God because no weapon of the enemy formed against me has succeeded to steal, kill, and destroy God’s beautiful promises for me.
40. I thank God I made it this far, so I can write this during my blog’s 14th anniversary. 😀
P.S. I am here in Manila since June to accomplish some of the plans I made, but as always, God has a different plan. It looks like God asked me to come back to give me the answer to one of the prayers I have been praying for – I finally got the confirmation. It took God a decade to reveal it to me. Or maybe it took me a decade to realize what God is actually trying to tell me. This time though, His revelation was crystal clear albeit very painful. I am actually hesitating and not in the mood to write this article, but I cannot dismiss the Spirit’s tugging. God’s promise never changed though – bringing me back to the promised land (literally or figuratively) because the mission is still waiting, but God is asking me to let go of one thing to fulfill it.
P.P.S. I am ending this article with a worship song by Genavieve Linkowski, and I also included another cover of hers because I find the lyrics comforting and sad at the same time. I just love the melody, actually. 😀 You also might want to watch the movie “Daniel: The Prophet of Visions” on your free time – superb 4k scenes. <3