What is essential in life?

The more I think about what is truly essential for me to live in this day and age, my answer gets smaller and smaller. At first a list of luxuries came spewing out of my brain, like my house, my car, my cell phone, etc. But those things are not necessary. Not at all. The one thing that I can't live without is God. He's the One who gave me anything and everything I have. He gave me my family, my son, my friends, my church, my house, my car, everything. It's all glory to Him. I can't live without His unfailing love, without Him, I'm nothing and I have absolutely nothing. I'm beyond humbled by His powerful grace, peace, and love that fills my heart to the point of bursting, every single day. I'm so grateful.

The things that used to stress me out before knowing God was a long list of things I find so minute these days. One huge thing on that list was our finances. If I would let it, I could easily get overwhelmed and worried about money. It wasn't until I started a relationship with God that I realized money has no worth, and God has ALWAYS made a way for us. Instead of thinking, "I'll never have the money for that", I saw it as, "Thank God, we had the money available to do that". Need an example? My dog, Halo, swallowed a stuffed toy once. She needed emergency surgery or she would have died. The surgery cost upwards of $3,000. We had just received our income check for that year, a week before this happened. The money was there, and we used that money to save her life. I know some one might think, it's a dog, you used your savings for that? However, God blessed me with this dog, she's a companion to me and my family, and God made the funds available to us for this reason. We used that money to save her life. And yeah sure, the rest of the year with no savings could have been scary and overwhelming thinking, "well what if this happens"...but living with "what if's" is a dangerous lifestyle and I encourage you break that habit if you tend to think that way. God has always made a way for us, and we thank Him over and over for that. Do you have a time in your life you can think of when God made a way for you? I'm sure you do, we all do. It's imperative to recognize that and give your thanks to Him. God bless us all.