Giving Thanks.....for the bad

Thanksgiving has come and gone. The traditional eating of the bird and multiple pies; pecan, pumpkin and everything in between has been consumed and now are sitting as extra non-essential calories in our bellies. We spent our Thanksgiving with my family in central Texas where I was raised with my folks and my favorite aunt in the whole wide world. It is almost automatic during this time of the year to be thankful, because let's face it, it's in the name of the holiday. While we give thanks for all the blessings God has bestowed upon us, I was thinking about all the bad. Now stay with me here. Yes I am so grateful for an amazing family, a beautiful wife, out of this world children, parents who believe in me and have been my biggest cheerleaders, a job that I love, and awesome Sr. Pastors. I am so thankful for everything. I sometimes think that this is a dream. Who would have thunk it? Someone like me can be so blessed, and I am so thankful, but that also leads me to back to the bad. I am talking about those challenges in life that pop up all of a sudden. Those difficult times that make you say "what tha...?" I can honestly say that I am thankful for those too. It is during those crappy times in my life that mold me, that shape me, that brings me back to the reality that this world is broken and Christ has set me on a journey that at times will be filled with hurt, and disappointment, but it is in these points in my walk that I grow. I get in the "FIGHT or flight mode" and you know what? I fight!!! I will not back down, I will not given in, I will not let anything come in between me and the calling/purpose GOD has called me into. It's in the bad, that I can actually understand the good, and for the I am truly thankful.