Glass Half Full...

Okay, I went to church this morning and gave myself a reality check. I need to stop feeling sorry for myself that I'm not on some great vacation like all the people on Facebook and Instagram. Too, we live in a wealthy small town of the Have's and Have not's and the Have's have the money to vacation.
Me? I'm going to be thankful for what I have, and I am so very thankful for that, even though I don't sound like it very much.
My epiphany today (since my pastor has been preaching on "Faith" for many weeks) is that God, my Father, is teaching me to live by faith. You see, I grew up in a household where our needs and wants were pretty much met. We did have the money for whatever was necessary. I always tell everyone my biggest regret in life was when I had just graduated from college and gotten my first job, and also applied to be a missionary for Campus Crusade for Christ. My non-churchgoing parents were very against it since they had just paid for my college education, and too, you had to go out and get the financial support yourself. That was the deal-breaker for me. It seemed like begging to have regular folks give money each month and sponsor a CCC missionary. I don't think that now, since I'm older and see that investing in people personally is a very cool thing, but with the way I was brought up, that idea at the time was extremely foreign and very scary.
Fast forward to today as a single older mother who is on straight commission in a dying industry. I'm looking for another job but nothing has turned up yet. I'm not going to switch towns since DD is a year and a half away from graduating. And God promises to take care of our needs and He cannot lie. His Word IS truth.
And random people keep giving me money that I don't ask for, and I try not to accept, but they insist. And it is always exactly enough for us to make it another week or two. His Word says, "Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything." And "For my God shall supply ALL your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." I am standing on His promises, it's all I can do. My best friend, who is also single and struggling, sent me $500 for Christmas. She has never done this and I felt guilty accepting it, but she insisted. Consequently I ended up in the ER twice this month with a copay of - you guessed it - $250 each time. Ugh. I had that money spent ten different ways, but... I need to be thankful that I had enough to pay the copays.
One of my church friend's six-year-old son had a seizure on Christmas day, and one of DD's friends had very major surgery a week before Christmas, and ended up back in ICU on Christmas day, so it can always be worse. Very much worse. One of my friend's mothers (whose husband died when we were 18 and left her with 4 kids, lots of bills, and zero money) used to wisely say, "there's always a worse story."
So true...