Blessings Around Me...

I know I said I would post pictures of my new apartment, but I still have not taken any!  I keep forgetting.  We are finally feeling more settled, although I still have no furniture in my room.  I continue to really love our little apartment.  I am so thankful that this is the apartment that God provided for us!  

As for everything else in my life, the last couple weeks have been filled with so many ups and downs.  I have had a lot of moments where I have struggled here.  For many reasons, it has been challenging.  In many ways, I think It is just comes down to the fact that I am still transitioning to a huge place and a new life.  I miss my friends and family and the comforts that I had.  Sometimes I continue to get overwhelmed with learning my new jobs, all the new people, and a whole new environment.  With that being said, I still would not trade this experience for the world.  Today was a beautiful day in New York City and some of my co-workers and I decided to walk home from work.  We walked through Central Park and I as looked around I just thought, "I really live here."  This is my home now.  I get to walk through Central Park to get home from work and I love that! 

I have really been convicted of how much of a complaining heart I have had lately.  I have been easily frustrated with  small things and have been discontent with so many things.  It is easy for me to get frustrated with the transportation, the fact that I don't have a dresser to put my clothes in, the expense of living in the city, the people who get in my way when I am trying to get somewhere, the little things that go wrong in my day, and so on.  I struggle sometimes so much with discontentment.  It is funny how even when I am living my dream of being in a city and things really are going well, I STILL find things to be discontent about.  Well yesterday I was stuck in my apt due to the down pours caused by tropical storm "Hannah" and decided to read.  I was actually reading a book called, "Singlenss Refined"  that one of the girls I work with in the Childrens Ministry at Redeemer wrote.  It is a great book, I would definitely recommend it.  Anyways, at the end of one of the chapters she makes the statement "we become so absorbed with our personal frustrations that we forget or ignore the blessings right before our eyes."  It is a simple statement, but one that spoke so hugely to me yesterday.  It really hit me how much I do that.  I get so absorbed in my frustrations, that I miss out on all the blessings that are right before my eyes.  There really are so many blessings right in front of me.  I hate that I get so consumed with things that are challenging to me or aspects of my life that I would want to change, that I lose sight of all the amazing things.  I am so thankful that God has placed me where he has.  I am so thankful to be in this season of my life and to be living in the place that I am.  Today I was specifically reminded of how neat it is to live in New York when I walked through the park, or tonight I went to church and got to hear Tim Keller give a powerful sermon on our need for the Word of God. I hate that my heart is so sinful that I so easily lose sight of God's goodness and blessings in my life and all around me. I love I Tim 6:6 "There is great gain in godliness with contentment." That is such a powerful verse and I want to claim that for my life. We are called to live a life of contentment. That is so challenging in the world that we live in today, but it really isn't an option as a follower of Christ. I know I will have to pray continually for a heart of contentment, but it is my desire to fight to have one!

In other fun New York City news, I went to the NFL kick off celebration on Thursday and go to see Usher perform. You might have seen it on NBC Friday night. They had a big free concert at Columbus Circle. Even though I am not an NFL fan, it was fun to be out there for the kick off party!