This past weekend, my family and I traveled to Baylor University for Homecoming weekend.  We've been before.  Many times, actually.  But for some reason, this past weekend, as we walked the beautiful campus, with its red brick buildings and the trees just beginning to change, I just felt something profound.

I felt a deep contentment as I considered my years at Baylor, and all the years since.  I realized, somehow, while I looked around at all the crowds in green and gold...I realized how much God has done for me.  I somehow stopped and considered the miracles.

I was brought back to a morning in a therapist's office, where my husband and I were getting some new tools for raising kids and building a strong marriage.  And the counselor asked us to tell her our stories.  

So we did.  Like we have dozens of times before.  

But her look was incredulous when we finished.  And she said, "Do you realize what a miracle you guys are?"

Naw.  Not really.  Had never crossed our minds.  We've just lived our lives the best we'd known how. 

But, she challenged us to consider how we had beaten odds when we chose God.  When we chose to trust him, beat on his chest, run to him instead of from him.  

No other alternative had ever crossed our minds.

Walking along campus on Saturday, that day with the counselor crossed my mind.  And I felt it.  I mean, really felt it.  The miracles that God has done.  Most of which I've just glossed over or downplayed or never even took time to consider.  

That I was able to go to Baylor at all.  Daughter of a dying preacher and a mom whose full time job had become caring for him.  That I decided to stay at Baylor after a rather rough first semester when my angry Atheist roommate took offense to how I was dealing with my dad's terminal cancer and kicked me out.  Oh, and by the way, she was happy to let me know on my way out the door just how often I'd been the subject of gossip and criticism by those whom I had called friends.  That I came back after that brutal Christmas break when I was no longer sure Baylor was right for me.  Or the following fall, after Dad died and I was told there was no money to send me back.

And the years there while my life was completely unraveling, that my knight in shining armor showed up and stuck with me.  That despite being clinically depressed and seeking no treatment, I landed on my feet as I stumbled and crawled to seek God through it all.  

Until that counselor had mentioned it, I had never considered the destructive paths I might have chosen.  None of them were even an option to me there in that dark pit.  I never considered self-medicating or any other possible numbing behavior.  

But, Saturday, as I walked along campus, with my husband of nearly twenty years and our three healthy children, I felt the miracles.  I felt the miracle that our relationship bloomed and grew not just despite the tough circumstances but actually fueled by them.  That we somehow, in all our ignorance, knew enough to just run toward God in all our questioning and seeking.  

That we were discipled and taught by none other than Louie Giglio for four years of college, every Monday night at a little Bible study called Choice.  That God provided for me, being financially independent at 19, through work study and VA benefits and then a timely inheritance from another family member.  Which allowed me to come out of Baylor debt free and pursue a Master's degree.

I walked through campus with my kids clad in their green and gold and seeing their enthusiasm for our alma mater on that beautiful crisp fall day.  And I thought about how both my boys came from pregnancies where a doctor said nothing but a miscarriage was to come.  And then, surprise, surprise...God gave us our daughter when we least expected it.  And there we were, a family of five, healthy and blessed beyond measure.  Not destroyed by the storms of life, but having survived them.

Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?  2 Samuel 7:18

It makes me wonder.  What miracles in your own life have you never stopped to consider?  I ate lunch with a friend at Baylor and her life is full of health miracle after health miracle...not to mention the incredible story of her son.  Another friend I spent time with has survived cancer.  Another survived a horrific trauma what would have left many to downward spiral out of control.  

While I walked through the bright sunshine and considered how I met my husband and how we grew together during our times at Baylor, I really stopped to consider all the miracles that God has done. The car wrecks that could have been worse.  The health issues that we've overcome. The stresses we've endured.  The financial struggles we've come through.  

Just the air in our lungs and another beautiful day to enjoy.  

That our children have the opportunities to go to college and to choose a profession and to pursue their dreams.  That in all the places in the world we could have been born, that we were born in the States.  And therefore enjoy countless privileges.  That we both ended up at Baylor University and somehow in that corner of the library on the same Saturday night.  That the friends who are still so dear to us supported us through our Baylor days and since.  That despite some uncaring professors, I had enough of those who cared to look beyond my struggles with grades and time management to figure out the why and help me find a way.  

All of this has rattled through my brain and I felt compelled to share it here, with you bloggy friends.  Because my challenge is this.

What miracles have you never stopped to consider?  Have you ever prayed and asked the Lord to give you eyes to see all the incredible ways that He has carried you through dark days?  Or health scares?  Or kept you safe?  Or rescued you from bad choices?  Or sustained you when nothing else could?  

We can get so caught in the busy and the noise of our day-to-day lives that we never stop and ponder.  We never stop and really reflect. 

As we near Thanksgiving and a season of gratitude, my challenge to you is to sit in a quiet place.  Grab a journal and a cup of coffee.  And ask God to reveal to you some miracles that maybe you've just not gotten quiet enough to consider.  

Because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a miracle.  You were woven together in your mother's womb (Psalm 139).  And you are God's workmanship, created for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10).  And in all these things, you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you (Romans 8:37).

No matter your current struggles or the circumstances that seem to overwhelm you, I know you can see a living, breathing miracle right this very minute and every single day.

Just go look in a mirror.  Because you are a miracle, and God will never cease to be in the miracle business. It's his specialty.