What to be thankful for...

Coral is usually the one to write the blogs, and I am more than happy to read her amazing, and inspirational, writings. She is the most incredible writer I have ever known. She encouraged me, a while back, to write some blogs if I ever wanted to. There have been times, but I could never arrange the words or thoughts well enough for reading purposes. In the last couple weeks God has given me peace and helped me to think clearer.

Happy Thanksgiving. (No one should be alarmed by this. It's been on the calendar since this time last year.) As you may know, this is a special day set aside to be thankful. There have been several large changes to Coral's and my life in the past couple years. We have made new friends and grown distant from others. I have learned more about Coral's parents, learned from them, and our relationship has grown. I have also grown closer to my parents, which I thought would be more difficult because we are farther away from them now. It is truly a gift from God, to have such incredible Godly parents on both sides of the family.
Coral and I have gone through some unbelievable struggles over the last couple years, but God has never left us. He has allowed us to see where most of the struggles were created by us. It took some time, but we were able to see where we decided to walk off the path of where God was directing us. A good friend of ours, and a leader at our church, spoke on "why do bad things happen to good people?” The message wasn't what I was expecting. He encouraged us to examine the question, then to think about Romans 3:21-26.
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

He explained that no one is "good". No one deserves good things. We have lied to ourselves and believed our own lie. Romans 6:23 says exactly what we deserve. The truth is: "God allows good things to happen to bad people".

It took me a while to try to look at our life that way. Instead of looking at our past as obstacles of what has happened to us to lead us to where we are, I was able to see where God gave us strength and guidance to move forward even in tough times.
It is still difficult to remember that the bad things are deserved and the good things are by the grace of God, but I believe this is how God wants us to see it. He did not cause our mess; He brought us out of the mess we created for ourselves. For this I am thankful. For my family, and for Coral's family, I am thankful.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, and we all remember what to be thankful for.
-Jared