I woke up this morning with Jesus on my mind.  I wish that I could say that He is the first thing that I think of every morning, but I have to be honest and admit that my brain isn't fully functioning at 5:30, and I'm focusing what is awake on getting my daughter up and cooking her breakfast.  Today, though, my mind was on Jesus and the agony that He suffered for me and you.  I have said that I can't imagine suffering that way for others, but He wasn't just suffering for anybody.  He was suffering for His creation.  He was there when the world was created, and he came in the form of man to live and die and rise again so that His creation could spend eternity with Him.  My husband and I have created two beautiful daughters, and I know that I would do the same for them.  I would suffer to end their suffering.  I would go hungry so that they could eat.  I would give them the clothes on my back to keep them warm.  I would give my life for their life.  This is the love that Jesus has for us.  Today as we were riding through the country, we passed a paved road with a gate.  We have passed it many times before, but today as we passed my 9 year old said, "Rich people live there."  She is old enough now to realize that some people have more than others.  I replied, "We are rich too."  She said, "No, we're not."  I replied, "We are rich with Jesus.  We are rich with a healthy family."  She said, "Oh, yeah."    You see, at an early age we begin to see the world through worldly eyes instead of Godly eyes.  This evening when I sat down to read my devotion for today it was about focusing on things that we do have instead of things that we don't have.  The author, Sarah Young, began by talking about all of the delicious fruit that Eve had in the Garden of Eden, yet she focused on the one she couldn't have instead of being thankful for all that she did have.  She went on to say, "When you focus on what you don't have or on situations that displease you, your mind also becomes darkened.  you take for granted life, salvation, sunshine, flowers, and countless other gifts from (God).  You look for what is wrong and refuse to enjoy life until that is fixed."  I thought again about that gate and the nicely paved road that leads to a house that we have never even seen.  I live a mile down a dirt road that is riddled with pot holes.  Some days the pot holes really drive me nuts!  What really bothers me most about the pot holes is not that they are there, but that they are there because we have been humbled in a huge way over the last 4 years and can't afford to buy the gravel to fix the pot holes.  There it is.  The ugly truth.  My devotion today reminded me that I can choose to focus on the pot holes and worry about not having a paved road with a gate, or I can choose to be thankful for the home that I have at the end of the pot holes.  It isn't much, but it's mine.  My children have grown up here, and they wouldn't want to live anywhere else.  My hope is in God.  It isn't in my road or my home.  It isn't in the car I drive or the clothes that I wear.  Yes, today I woke up with Jesus on my mind, and I'm so thankful that over 2,000 years ago, He died with me on His.