Be Thankful!

Today I was on twitter and I saw that a man tweeted about something that a big company did for people in Kenya. I tweeted him back and said how wonderful it was, and he responded with a link with pictures of the trip. I looked at them and my heart sank. The tears started flowing it was so sad. The streets were filled with trash and the people had sores on their feet. The houses were what looked like cardboard shacks. It was devastating to me.

I watch the 700 club a lot so I know what it is like in third world countries. It is so depressing. I find myself not wanting to watch those stories because it is so upsetting.

So I just wanted to remind everyone to be thankful. Be thankful you have a place that keeps you dry when it rains and keeps you warm in the cold. Be thankful for the clean water you drink and bathe in. Be thankful for the food you eat and that you and your family have full bellies. Be thankful that your children can go to the doctor when they are sick even if you don’t have the money to pay for it. You still have the OPTION to go. There are qualified people to take care of us when we are sick. They also can help prevent it. Be thankful for your nice warm bed. Be thankful to your children’s schools and teachers for providing an education for them. Be thankful for all you have.

Sometimes it is hard to focus on what we have vs. what we want. Unfortunately we live in a society where people always want more or better. More Money, More things or Better Cars, Better Electronics or Bigger Houses. Everyone is trying to keep up with the Joneses and trying to have a better status symbol. While you do that you carelessly forget about those little things that sound like no big deal. You know those little things like food, water and shelter? To those people in third world countries we live like KINGS and QUEENS.

Some of them work their fingers to the bone for a week for what we get for minimum wage an hour. Some walk miles for water, not clean water mind you but dirty disease ridden water, it’s wet. Parents are being killed by other people or disease which leaves 12 year old sometimes younger kids to take care of their brothers and sisters because they have no one else to take care of them. There isn’t foster care; there isn’t much help at all. Those children that are now responsible for their siblings, they don’t eat so they can feed the younger kids.

The diseases they get are horrible. They don’t have proper medical care. They don’t have proper protection of the elements. Thousands of people die each day. Sometimes all it takes is $5 dollars worth of medicine to save them and they don’t even have that.

So please remember to BE THANKFUL for what you have vs. what you don’t. After all you have a lot more than some.