...and reward

Ok. I'm on a thought roll here.

Being faced with some of my most recent challenges has brought to my attention how incredibly blessed I am in several ways.

1. My latest stress-inducing job has made me incredibly thankful for my other job, which is extremely low-stress and well-paying, as well as allowing me to work with pleasant, easy-going coworkers who treat me like equals, and allowing me to work for the best boss in the ENTIRE world, who also happens to be my father.

2. Above-mentioned job has also made me incredibly grateful for days off and weekends! People often tire quickly during the work week, but thank God that most of the time we have weekends!

3. I'm thankful that I have two part-time jobs, allowing me to work full-time and make the money I need to make during the summer. I'm thankful for the opportunity God presented me with when I WAS short on money and looking for a job.

4. Also, grateful for challenges, as I'm already growing and learning as a result. People don't say challenges are good for you just to make you feel better. They actually are...

5. I'm thankful for the incredible combination of genes and upbringing that have given me the intelligence and physical capabilities to perform well at almost any job that I'm given. I've come to realize that I'm very well prepared to face present and future tasks, unless that task happens to be golfing, in which case I am extremely unprepared.

6. I'm thankful for not just one or two close friends I can lean on in the midst of my troubles, but numerous friends and a family that has and always will be there to support me and call my 'enemies' all sorts of bad names to make me feel better. And to tell me to buck up and quit whining when I need it.

7. Finally, I'm thankful that the God of the universe is on my team. No challenge is too difficult, no problem too overwhelming for Him to solve.
      But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
(Thanks Eric!)

Ok, that's all.

Mandy-Pies