Thankful Or Thankless

I am becoming aware that I can become so lost in the difficult things around me that the good things just fall by the way side. By the way, how many good things have to take place before they even out the bad? How many times does a person have to say 'I'm sorry ",before they are truly forgiven. How many things do they have to do right before the wrong is not center of attention? The following quote is by Elisabeth Elliot. Her life was filled wit unimaginable trials. Two husbands that died and left her behind. Most people would give her their permission to look at life in a negative manner and by all means be bitter. Some would say, surely on the third husband she deserved a little perfection. I guess she did not get it.

"Many women have told me that my husband's advice, which I once quoted in a book, has been an eye-opener to them. He said that a wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy. It's a down-to-earth illustration of a principle: Accept, positively and actively, what is given. Let thanksgiving be the habit of your life."

I want to be a positive loving person. It is so easy to do with those outside my home. But what about with my family.
My Mom once said that before God tries you in something great -He will first try you in the little. Kind of like shoes-you have to wear the little ones before the big ones will fit you.
I want to be a person who sees the good before the bad. Who concentrates on the positive until the negative is a wall that must be climbed over.
So let me first be found faithful with the people within the walls of my home. Let me thank God for the 80 percent and leave the rest to Him. So. I'll thank God that the little sand in my oyster shell will in the long road give me a beautiful pearl.