Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy,
and drink thy wine with a merry heart;
for God now accepts thy works.
Let thy garments be always white {clothed with Christ}
and let thy head lack no ointment {filled with the Holy Spirit}.
Live joyfully with the wife whom thou loves all the days of the life of thy vanity,
which He has given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity;
for that is thy portion in this life, and in they labor which thou takes under the sun.
Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
I absolutely LOVE these verses! For those who think God doesn't want us to enjoy life, these verses smash that theory to pieces. He wants us to eat with joy, drink wine with a merry heart, live joyfully with our spouses, and work hard at whatever we do. Maybe the saying "work hard then play hard" is smiled upon by our loving Father.
Everything good {food, wine, spouse, work} is given to us from the hands of God and He is so good. It is so hard to imagine that He has given us all these good things when we deserve none of it. And to think that heaven is going to be better than any of these things...Ponder that!
Oh, the gifts and blessings from God. I do like Ann Voskamp's idea of writing down your blessings everyday. Even in the 20 years of pain that I endured, I had so many blessings in my life. We will all experience pain and suffering in this life, but life is much richer if we focus and meditate upon our blessings.