Remembering Jack

I've been thinking a lot lately about things I am grateful for. I know that Thanksgiving was a while back. But a close family friend died this morning after a difficult battle with liver cancer. I feel a little silly for the way I feel, because I know I didn't know him for an extremely long period of time, but he influenced my life a great deal over the last few years. Perhaps more than he or anyone else really knows. He was a great example to me in ways I don't even know how to express. I guess I have been a little emotional today. And that brought these things to mind.
I am grateful for my family. Every last one of them. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, sposes of cousins. All of them. I don't know what I would do without them. Even my brother in law, who sometimes drives me nuts, because I realize that my family would not be the same without him.
I have been babysitting my cousin a lot lately, and I enjoy it immensly. Especially because it gives me a chance to do something for my family, and see them more often than I would otherwise. I know my aunt thinks that she is imposing on my social life, but I am glad that she asks me to help when I easily can. I wish I could do more sometimes.
I am thankful for the chance I had this past summer to see the power of prayer in action. I spent several weeks praying for a cousin's family while they were going through a difficult time. And things turned out better than any of us could have expected to begin with.
I am grateful for the opportunity I had a few years back to live with my grandparents. It made me appreciate them so much more. And love them, and understand them, and not want to take them or the time I have with them for granted. Not just those grandparents, but the ones on the other side of my family as well. I feel like I have grown closer to all four of them over the last few years, and I am infinately glad that I have. They are amazing people, and I am blessed to know them, let alone be related to them.
I am grateful for time. For the time I have to spend with those I love or care about. For the time I have to spend doing the things I love. For the time I have on this earth, period. It is truly a blessing.
I am grateful for the Gospel. I would not be who I am or where I am without it. It has made my life so much better than it would be without it. And I have seen it touch so many people in so many ways. Including the friend I mentioned at the beggining of this post.
I am grateful for a good job, even though it sometimes frustrates me. It keeps me stimulated and busy. And I have learned a lot from it.
I am grateful to be able to pay for a place to live and food to eat and clothing to keep me warm and dry.
I am grateful for the opportunities I have to serve other people. For the calling I have at church. For the chance I have to go to the Food Bank on a fairly regular basis and do what I can in other places. For the chance I have to do things around my apartment to help out (yeah, I could do better here).
I am grateful to live where I do. To have the opportunity to worship God in the way I choose. To receive an education, as far as I aspire to do so. I am thankful to feel relatively safe in a world that is in so much turmoil right now.
I don't even know how to express how thankful I am for so many other things in my life. Sometimes this makes me feel like I am an ungrateful person. There is so much that I have that I can never even scratch the surface in saying what I am thankful for. But I want to try harder to do so. Because it's important to realize these things. I think that is another thing that this experience with death has taught me. And not just this particular experience, but a few others that I have had over the last couple of years. Life, and all the things in it, are precious. We shouldn't take that for granted. We should live life to the fullest of our abilities. And appreciate more of what it has to offer us. And more of what God has to offer us.
That's just my opinion. You don't have to agree.