I wonder what swirled through your brain as you read that. No judgment. I have plenty of need to grow in gratitude myself. I’m not coming here to harp on why you aren’t more grateful, and neither am I here with 5 perfect steps that will get you into the gratitude aisle.
Wouldn’t it be awfully nice if we could find this aisle in Walmart? Chock full shelves with 2 and 3 gallon quantities. We’d probably want to buy gratitude for handing out to all the discontent people during the holiday season! Perhaps, though, this is a time we ought to focus on ourselves.
Feelings of gratitude definitely do not come naturally. It takes intentionality and a cultivating of gratitude in our hearts daily for it to become a way of life. I feel gratitude is more of a heart posture than it is to say ‘thank you’ a hundred times a day, though that is also a good thing. When our hearts are overwhelmed with the goodness of God, it will spill over into our everyday living. It will come out in our view of life in general, in our actions and speech. If we’re constantly critical and finding life’s negativaty outweighs the positive, it speaks of a distressed and discontent heart.
Yes, life is hard. I don’t discredit that at all! There is much sadness and grief surrounding us, and I do not mean that we don’t grieve. Or that we never feel there’s not much positive left in life, except perhaps, the positive in batteries.
God understands our hearts and sees our griefs. He knows the silent pain nobody else sees. He knows the deep pain of losing someone precious to us. He sees all the griefs known and unknown. But if we let Him, He is able to heal with His never ending supply of grace. And even as we grieve, He heals, and our hearts can be given to gratitude amidst suffering.
We all make the choice whether we will give in to self pity or with God’s help, create a grateful heart.
We should definitely give thanks for spiritual blessings. God gives blessings abundant to those who love Him! But thanks for material blessings is important too. And do you ever give thanks for things that didn’t happen? Or thanks for the things we don’t deal with? Did you thank God that the glass didn’t shatter when your son swung it precariously while emptying the dishwasher on a hectic morning? Did you thank God that when hubby’s truck didn’t start again, it happened at the local shed shop instead of halfway through the midst of a big city? Are we giving thanks that our country is not at war? Are we giving thanks for the peaceful homes we have to raise our children? There’s oodles of could be calamities if we’ll only notice. And there’s thanks to be given for that!
Something I’ve often thanked God for, is that I’m not in the hospital. I have many memories of surgeries and scary times of being hospitalized and my heart goes out to those who struggle with health, because I’ve been there. Lately, I’m kinda there again….
Last Sunday, I had a rough night because of how I was feeling. Monday was worse yet and I ended up in the ER Monday evening. They kept me for about 14 hours. My baby was promptly monitored, and thank God! Was very active and doing great! The I.V. fluids rehydrated me and took care of the terrible heart palpitations I was having. But the dizziness and vomiting were worse. And then my ear. I was diagnosed with an inner ear infection (which doesn’t hurt) but because of the infection, it caused vertigo, which causes dizziness and nausea/vomiting. For a week now, I’ve been dealing with lightheadedness and this horrible feeling of being off balance in my head as soon as I move. My head feels like a concrete block dragging me down, making me feel woozy. And my ear won’t budge open no matter how many vertigo exercises and home remedies I’ve tried, besides the antibiotics. All I can do is sit or lay around and listen to my ear ringing. If you’ve had vertigo, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’ve never had it, it’s definitely something to put on your ‘didn’t happen‘ thankful list! It is misery! I would any day rather have a sore throat or cold than this. I thought vertigo would be an excellent way to punish criminals because it really lays you low and nearly makes you unable to produce coherent behavior. Seems it has to be worse than being drunk. Not that I’ve ever been intoxicated, but I couldn’t even walk by myself the first few days. I barely opened my eyes either because it made things worse. That part is better, but my head is still in misery.
At today’s Dr visit, my ear looked better, but he said vertigo in pregnancy can hang on longer because of the extra blood flow. How ’bout a moment of silence to commemorate the days of misery still to come? Honestly, I need a moment of humble surrender to God’s will. Obviously He is trying to teach me something. As you can see, I have definite need of thankfulness in my current circumstances.
Prayers would be appreciated. And I do try to be thankful for the many good things I have: A healthy growing baby, A self-sacrificing hubby who outdoes himself taking care of me and the children, besides helping with laundry and dishes, and keeping up with business! Friends who check in and send flowers and meals. This sounds like a paradox, but I’m thankful I’m not in actual pain; I’m just miserable. Sleeping is the only relief I get, so I’m very grateful I can sleep! And there’s plenty more I could add.
There was another subject I had been pondering to write on, but somehow, thoughts about gratitude felt like the need of the hour. I sorta wanted to just scrap it and not think how much I needed to focus on gratitude instead of my difficulties. I’ll admit, I’ve been feeling quite gloomy about my situation. I had to miss out on some special events and felt sorry for myself. I scolded myself for being so childish but the scolding didn’t help. I was dismally weepy about this laying around business that was not only for 3 days but now over a week! I love to keep a clean, orderly house; even the dreaded tasks like laundry and cleaning bathrooms would be a joy to tackle if only I could. Preparing food for Thanksgiving would be a delight. Who wants to sit around day after day? But this year, God wants me resting instead of busy.
I was also struggling to believe God cares because He didn’t seem to be doing anything about my misery. That’s a lame way to view God, I know. But those are the old paths I grew up with and Satan tempts me fiercely when I’m weak and despondent.
Back to the topic at hand. Another aspect of gratitude that we often hear is in the context of, ‘we can always find someone who has it worse than us.’ This is true. But I don’t think it’s a good view of gratitude. For those who are in much worse shape than we, how are they finding gratitude? Is God not supplying grace for them? This thought also bypasses our own difficulties/ pain/ trauma or whatever we’re going through. And it’s not healthy to ignore our pain/ trials. It’s not selfish to care for our own hearts. What I’m saying is, it’s much better to acknowledge our trials and hurts and bring them to Jesus than to ignore them and act like they don’t matter. When we don’t acknowledge our grief/ pain, it will actually drive the pain deeper and we will continue not ‘feeling the pain’. And that sets us up for dead emotions which isn’t healthy at all.
It’s better to be honest about the hard things we’re facing. And ask God to help us be grateful and see the good. He knows our hearts, whether or not we really want to be thankful.
Some practical ways to practice gratitude:
- Display a Bible verse(s) that reminds us to give thanks.
- Have a portion of your prayer list for giving thanks. (It’s easy to make requests for the multitudes of needs and forget to give thanks! )
- Journaling is a great way to remember God’s gifts and give thanks for them.
- Each evening, reflect over your day and think of something you’re thankful for. (We have chosen to do this at our supper table for a number of years now. And mentioning the food on the table isn’t allowed.. there must be more creativity than that!)
- Ask God to help you change and be a more grateful person.
- For one month, or however long you choose, establish a new daily habit such as jotting down something you’re grateful for, or thanking someone for what they did for you, or thanking God for something as soon as your awake.
God really is good!! And we can’t change our mind on that when rough times hit us. We simply need to humble ourselves and trust His sovereignty. Maybe your Thanksgiving week will not turn out as planned. Remind yourself, God is still good and we have so much to thank Him for! Perhaps you should also remind yours truly. Judging by what she wrote she could use help in that department.
I’m humbled there’s folks who enjoy reading my posts and I’m going to take a moment to say Thank you! It’s my prayer God can use my blog to be a blessing to others.
And here are a couple of delicious recipes if you’re looking for gluten free options for your Thanksgiving menu.
Also, don’t forget to try out our laundry soap! We have a lot of happy customers!
of windowsills and breezy hills 