Recognizing God's Blessings

The day is clearly etched in my memory as if it were yesterday. My husband and I were newly married and trudging through daily behavior problems with our four children. We were sitting together at an awards ceremony at the elementary school two of our children attended.

As the principal called the names of the children receiving the citizenship award, I looked at my husband and despairingly said, "Our kids will never receive that award." We had far too many ongoing issues with each child to believe any of them could ever receive such an honorable award.

But I was reminded last week that God is bigger than I am. He specifically showed me:

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

On the last day of school last week, our nine-year-old son, Nathan, the only child my husband and I have together, received the citizenship/character award for his third grade class. It's the first time any of our five children have received such an award. I clearly saw God's undeserved blessing for me through my child that day.

Nathan is far from perfect but I believe God knew I needed some encouragement. It's been a difficult month with unusual challenges from our older children. And God chose to show His faithfulness through our youngest child. It was a sweet ending to a long school year.

God's presence can be seen in our lives often if we're looking for it. In R.T. Kendall's book, When God Shows Up, the author states, "God wants to appear in my life and in yours. The difficulty is that we tell Him how He has to do it."

Have you seen God's blessings lately on your stepfamily journey? Are you looking for them?