To be Thankful.....Remember!!

It is almost Thanksgiving!
My FAVORITE holiday!!!!
No presents. Lots of family. And the best food EVER!

And I love the story of the Pilgrims: people who were brave enough to leave everything they knew, everything that was safe, and everything that was secure, in order to follow God and serve Him according to their convictions.

But possibly my favorite thing about my favorite-est of holidays is the emphasis: thankfulness.

Because if we don't REMEMBER to be thankful people, we quickly devolve into becoming complainers, and comparers, and unsatisfied, unhappy wanters of something more.

Which must be why God repeatedly tells us so often to REMEMBER:
-God tells the Israelites, as they wander through the dessert and begin to complain, to remember how God did miraculous things for them with Pharaoh. (Ps. 106:7)
-He set up the rainbow as a constant visual reminder of His faithfulness. (Gen 9:16)
-God calls us to remember that His promises are generational and eternal (I Ch 16:15)
And those are just a few examples.

The Word REMINDS us:
-Recall the miraculous deeds He performed, His mighty acts and the judgments He decreed.            (Ps 105:5)

We HAVE to be reminded to remember. Because we so easily forget.
We forget what all God has done to us already. We forget how He has protected. We forget how He has provided. We forget how He has led. We forget how He has loved.

And if we forget.....we can NEVER be thankful! For it is in the remembering and recalling and recognizing and reminiscing and recollecting that we can begin to scratch the surface of the magnitude of all that God has done for us. And once that magnitude dawns upon us, we have no choice but to sing forth the praises to the One Who deserves that praise more than anything.

So take a minute and REMEMBER.
Remember that God is good and that His love endures for generations. (s 136:1,2)
Remember that He has engraved you in the palm of His hand. (Is 49:14,16)
Remember that He has protected you from your enemies. (Ps 121:7)
Remember that He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deut. 31:6)

Remember. And then BE THANKFUL! Give Thanks! Over and over again.

I will remember the works of the Lord. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago!

Ps. 77:11

What I Am Thankful For

I love Thanksgiving. The most.

No presents.  Pretty colors. Family. And the best food of the year.


Sigh.

This is what our Thanksgiving buffet looked like. There were 42 of us: aunts, uncles, cousins, second-cousins. A friend looked at my daughter as she was describing the day and exclaimed, "You KNOW your SECOND cousins?!?!"  Yes, with great gratitude I can say, not only do my kids know their second cousins, they actually like them. A lot.



I am thankful for many things, and I thought it might be good to record exactly what some of those things are:

• I am thankful to have a husband who continues to show up, to forgive me, to ask me for forgiveness, who laughs with me, and likes me, and takes me out for dates, and sees me at my worst and loves me anyway.
• I am thankful for the privilege of being a Mom. A privilege that involves effecting hearts and bearing burdens. And it is also the privilege of being encouraged, challenged, and convicted by the boldness and faith of my own children who often surpass me in their passion for the Lord.
• I am thankful for enough. Enough food. Enough clothing. Enough water. Enough gas. Enough. Enough. Enough. Of everything I need.
• I am thankful for a country where I can vote and go to church and disagree and stand up for what I believe in.
• I am thankful for the mercy, grace, power, loving-kindness, justice, forgiveness, and protection of my Lord.

That really just scratches the surface.

I have so much to be thankful for.  But I often forget to be thankful. To my shame.

So as I look forward to immersing myself in the joy of the Christmas season, I don't want to rush past the gratitude of the Thanksgiving season.  Because it is so easy to digress into the "stuff" of Christmas gift giving and it is so easy to lose sight of and dismiss the appreciation of my great blessings.

So this week I am holding off on Christmas. Just for a week. Cause I am just not done being Thankful.

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.  Ps. 111:1

A Sacrifice of Praise?

On the way to church, my head hurting, my mind reeling, my heart dragging......

Hmmmmm......, I don't think that is what I am supposed to be doing or feeling. I mean, I am going to the House of my Lord and am going to hear His word preached and praise His name in study and in song and be blessed by being with other believers.

What is wrong with me?

As I drive along, condemning myself and feeling badly about feeling so badly, a verse came into my mind:

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name."                              -Hebrews 13:15

 A sacrifice of praise?

What does that even mean?

I will tell you what it meant to me this past Sunday morning on the way to church:

• I had to slay and then lay on the altar the things that were huge impediments to my praise. They had to be sacrificed because I had to PRAISE.
• My mind, my body, and my feelings had to be laid down because they were incapable that morning of praising!

First was my mind which was condemning me and thinking of all the undone chores and worrying about the problems and logically looking at situations which it was declaring "impossible"....

• It had to be laid down

Second was my body which was tired and consumed with a looming migraine and achy and weary and teary and....

• It had to be laid down

Third were my feelings which were jumbled and sad and conflicted and disappointed and confused and....

• They had to be laid down

All three of these parts of me had to be laid on the altar so that my lips would not give off complaints or judgement or despair, but rather "the fruit of (my) lips would give thanks to His name."

So choosing to praise anyway....maybe that is the sacrifice. Choosing to be thankful. Choosing to be grateful. Choosing to be humble. Choosing to be content. Choosing to be satisfied.

Satisfied in Jesus.

And as I feebly gave that sacrifice of praise, not a thing around me changed- my head still hurt and the problems were still the same.....but somehow praising changed everything.

Now again this morning, I am trying to remember that lesson. Today is an anniversary of an event that seemed to be one of promise but changed into one of heartbreak.  So today, as I WANT to feel sad and despondent,  I. Will. Praise.

I.

Will.

Praise.

Him.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? 

Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God,    

for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

Ps. 43:5

Be Joyful Always? Really? ALWAYS?

This is a repost of something I wrote over a year ago. But I was thinking about it this morning as I was struggling with feelings of bleakness and failing miserably at being joyful and thankful. I guess one of the best tests of if I am really joyful is how I react to the times there is not as much to obviously be joyful about. True confessions- this morning I failed the test. Thank you Lord for your unending love and patience in my life!

Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all

circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

I Thessalonians 5:16

When God says always does He really mean ALWAYS?

Like ALL the time?

No matter what?

Without exception?

Every time?

Every circumstance?

Could He possibly mean THAT?

I mean- how is that even possible. Today I woke up with the remains of a migraine that will not quite go away and that has interposed on my sleep for two nights. Was I supposed to be joyful for THAT?

This afternoon I was ready to strangle someone I love very much. Someone I have cared and nurtured for many years. Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?

When I got home a car wouldn't start and we had to jump it. Was i supposed to be joyful THEN?

When I finally got inside, out of the cold wind (was I supposed to be joyful when I was cold?) and was met at the door with a "We have something to tell you" and the look from the supervising sibling that communicated that serious parental intervention was required. Then? Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?

REALLY?

Yes. Really! I was. Supposed to be that is. I wasn't. Joyful I mean.

How could God expect me to feel joy in all these circumstance? Uh- well- I guess He didn't command me to feel anything. He really just commanded me to BE something and He was gracious enough to tell me how.

Praying continually. Being thankful.

If I am supposed to be praying continually then it must mean that I am going to need a lot more of God and a lot less of me in order to be joyful.

And if I am "giving thanks in all thing" I am going to be awfully busy. In fact I will have little time left over for feeling sorry for myself or feeling angry at mistakes or envious of another's abundance.

So I think I better have a "do over" today- Thank you Lord for the headache: thank You that I have to slow down, and for medicine that can work, and family that cares that I am in pain.

Thank you Lord for the mistake of my child: thank You for the opportunity for a lesson to be learned, and thank You for ready solutions, and thank you for the opportunity I will have to apologize when he gets home, and thank You for love that covers a multitude of sins.

Thank You Lord for a car with a bad battery: thank You for a responsible son who doesn't expect me to fix everything for him, and thank You for jumper cables, and thank You for a car at all and that it still runs after 180,000 miles.

Thank You for the cold wind: I like sweaters.

Thank you Lord for my young child and her sins: thank You for the chance to share how You hate lies, and thank You that You hate lies, and thank You for creative ideas, and thank You for a big sister who cares for her younger sister, and thank You that I was with her for this valuable lesson.

Thank You that I do not have feel happy to BE joyful.

Thank YOU.

So the clouds were gathering this morning- foggy, stormy, raining.

Uh, no, not outside. Outside was gloriously beautiful with the blue sky that seems to have its own special hue down here in Texas.

No, the storm was in my heart. I hurt my back somehow yesterday. I must be getting really old and broken down, because I am not really sure what even happened. I mean if I had been lifting a big box, or moving furniture, or one of those other kind of "heavy" things I tend to do myself instead of asking for help...well if it had been one of those things I could just chalk it up to my over doing it. But I can't even think of what to blame this on. Certainly it couldn't be that I don't exercise enough- you know, core strength and all.

But back to this morning- my storm clouds gathering and spilling over to run down my cheeks. I was laying on the bed, still in pajamas, flat on my back with pillows propped under my legs to take the pressure off my back. I mean, this is the day before Thanksgiving, the day to bake, and pack, and play Christmas music two days early. I was in the midst of a swelling pity party with self condemnation being the main guest when a Word broke in,

"Be still my daughter, I love you so much and you are beautiful to Me."

"How can you think I am beautiful? I am a mess and I need to vacuum and the dust bunnies under my dressers are about to be dust lions. I am not ready for this trip. Why can I never seem to get around to all there is to do? How can You love me and how can You think I am beautiful? And by the way Lord, is this really You, because I don't want to listen to myself right now!"

And then His word repeated in my soul, "Be still my daughter, I love you so much and you are beautiful to Me."

I knew it must be my Lord because I could feel the beginnings of the Light streaming around the edges of my clouds. I began to feel the wash of His love and acceptance and began to accept where He had me this morning- flat on my back, still enough to hear His sweet voice. I love that He repeated the same words to me. There was no need of explanations, of reasons why this occurred today, of a plan of action. Just reassurance and His precious love.

Why does He love me? Because it is His nature.

Why does He think I am beautiful? Because He created me.

He created me to need Him. And this Thanksgiving I think that is the thing I am thankful for the most.

Be joyful always? Really? ALWAYS?

Be joyful always, pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.     -- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-

When God say always does He really mean ALWAYS?  Like ALL the time?  No matter what? Without exception?  Every time?  Every circumstance?  Could He possible mean THAT?

I mean- how is that even possible.  Today I woke up with the remain of a migraine that will not quite go away that has interposed on my sleep for two nights.  Was I supposed to joyful with THAT?

This afternoon I was ready to strangle someone I love very much.  Someone I have cared and nurtured for many years.  Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?

When I got home a car wouldn't start and we had to jump it.  Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?

Then I finally got inside, out of the cold wind (was I supposed to be joyful when I was cold?) and was met at the door with a "We have something to tell you" and the look from the supervising sibling that communicated that serious parental intervention was required.  Then? Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?

REALLY?

Yes. Really!  I was.  Supposed to be that is.  I wasn't.  Joyful I mean.  How could God expect me to feel joy in all these circumstances?  Uh-  well-  I guess He didn't command me to feel anything.  He really just commanded me to BE something and He was gracious enough to tell me how.

Praying continually. Being thankful.  If I am supposed to be praying continually then it must mean that I am going to need a lot more of God and a lot less of me in order to be joyful.

And if I am "giving thanks in all things" I am going to be awfully busy.  In fact I will have little time left over for feeling sorry for myself or feeling angry at a mistake or feeling envious of another's abundance.

So I think I better have a "do over" today- Thank you Lord for the headache: thank You that I have to slow down, and for medicine that can work, and family that cares that I am in pain.  Thank you Lord for the mistake of my child: thank You for the opportunity for a lesson to be learned, and thank You for ready solutions, and thank you for the opportunity I will have to apologize when he gets home, and thank You for love that covers a multitude of sins.  Thank You Lord for a car with a bad battery: 

thank You for a responsible son who doesn't expect me to fix everything for him, and thank You for jumper cables, and thank You for a car at all and that it still runs after 180,000 miles.  Thank You for the cold wind: I like sweaters.  Thank you Lord for my young child and her sins: thank You for the chance to share how You hate lies, and thank You that You hate lies, and thank You for creative ideas, and thank You for a big sister who cares for their younger sister, and thank You that I was with her for this valuable lesson.

Thank You that I do not have to feel happy to BE joyful.  Thank YOU.