Grateful

I had a difficult day yesterday and was thinking negative as I was trying to find the "positive" in my life as there have been multiple things that have been negative lately : I won't list them here but trust me when I say I feel like I have been unusually inindated with negative circumstances happening a lot around me or too me directly. I went to breakfast with one of my dear friends and we were able to vent and also encourage each other through our circumstances and I told her we need to change our way of thinking and "battlefield of the mind" by Joyce Meyer came up in converstation as well as finding things to be grateful for. She long ago bought me a cup that says "grateful" on it right before my dad died and I have it to this day. I tell her it reminds me of things to be grateful for instead of dwelling on my current set of circumstances. As we were leaving we were just browsing the coffee shop and there was a little sign that said "Be grateful" with a heart on it. A God wink. Later that evening I went to bible study and the fist half was about Science in the Bible taught by one of my spiritual mentors. Very good and then his Granddaughters took over the remainder of the class and they said we are going to teach on the power of what we think ...What?? Phillipians 4: 8 teaches us on what we should be thinking about : "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things..". Wow! God is always awesome in his timing!! This morning I realized I didn't do my devotional or bible readying yesterday and I reread yesterdays Jesus calling for today and it was about Gratitude!!! It starts out saying " Let thankfulness temper all your thoughts...WOW!!!!! It quotes scriptures from 1Cor 10:10 and Hebrews 12: 28-29. I then read today's devotion and it was about waiting ..which I have felt like I've been in this waiting season since Nov of last year..it's just an ongoing waiting pattern: The devotion from today starts out as "Waiting on me means directing your attention to me in hopeful anticipation of what I will do." I will admit that waiting can be very very difficult at times : I could list right now a huge list of things I'm waiting for..but it's what we do in the waiting that matters..I know it would be so nice if God answered our prayers right away but I feel if he did that we wouldn't depend on him as much as we do and he wants us to be drawn closer to him and be renewed through the waiting and be strenthened by his strength and not ours. He wants us to Glorify him in deep dependendece on him and be ready to do his will whatever that is and to be in his presence in fullness of his Joy! I know it's hard at times but It's really a change of the mindset and a redirecton of our thoughts to focus on him and to spend time with him during this process. He is always faithful so we should live Grateful!!!