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We Often Times Take The Basic Things In Life For Granted

Old Winston-Salem, NC by Ken Hulsey

 It has become very apparent to me that the Lord has taken full advantage of my life here in Louisiana to teach a lot about my life and my faith. To be honest life down here in the South can be hard at times and through those hard times I have learned to trust in God and to remember just how great a blessing some of the most mundane things that we count on every day actually are.

Over the past year due to hurricanes and a rogue ice storm many of these basic luxuries like electric power, air conditioning, heat, running water, cable television and internet have been out for prolonged periods of time. The blame for a lot of this can be explained on the terrible condition of infrastructure down here in Louisiana, but that is a gripe for another time and actually isn't my point. 

You really don't realize how important air conditioning is until it doesn't work on a day when it's ninety degrees outside and the humidity is around eighty percent. There isn't anything quite like the sensation of not being able to get cool while soaking in your own perspiration.

Likewise, it isn't much fun to have to live and sleep in one room that is being heated by a platoon of electric floor heaters. The rest of the house was like an ice box and I was afraid that I might freeze to the toilet seat, You shouldn't be able to see your own breath while your sitting on the toilet.

When you turn on a light switch, you expect those lights to come on and when you turn on a faucet, water is supposed to come out.

I've lived in a lot of different places during my life and for the most part all of the things I mentioned always worked. I can't remember the power ever going out in Texas or New Mexico. The power did sometimes go out in California, but again their power grid can't handle the demand. The water was always on everywhere.

Here in Louisiana at any given time ... kablooey.

I hadn't realized I how spoiled I had been all my life. I honestly took everything for granted. You earn a lot of respect for things when you don't have them.

In this way God has taught me a lot of humility and the simple fact that even the most basic things in life are truly huge blessings.

I now find myself offering up prayers of thanksgiving for these things on a daily basis. It's my way of telling God thank you for showing me the true value of things and for providing so many important and overlooked things in my life.

I urge you to always remember to pray for the little things in life. Those often overlooked blessings are just that blessings and God needs to be praised for them.

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