The Melody of Thankfulness

I loved the rose I found in the celery stalk.... Seeing the beauty in small things!

Ahh, thankfulness. I have been exploring thankfulness or you could say running an in-home experiment this past week on the effects of thankfulness. I was reading “Created to Be His Help Meet” by Debi Pearl who says “thankfulness is how you think; joy is the abundance it produces”. I love this quote and decided it was time to intentionally be more thankful in my life.

Now, I love to think. I think more than might be good but I love it. This last week lent itself to many thinking hours during which I mulled over thankfulness: what it means to me, how much thankfulness I have had in my life, what true thankfulness is and some reflections on my experiment and its successes.

I think I have often exhibited thankfulness to some degree, however, I realized that much of it has had the wrong root and therefore did not produce any abundance of joy in my life. Let me explain. As a military wife, I am sometimes called upon to lend my awesome husband to the service of this country and say farewell for months at a time. It is not easy for me and brings with it plenty of opportunity to feel ungrateful. One of the well-meaning comments I get is to be thankful that he is not gone longer as many are. Now this is certainly something I can be thankful for but it seems to produce the wrong effect in me. The difficulties I encounter in his absence don’t grow wings and fly away as I would hope and my thankfulness is shaky at best. If he is gone for four months I can be thankful he is not gone for six months or a year but what happens if he is gone for a year? I would have to feed my thankfulness with the knowledge of someone whose husband is gone for two years. Do you see the constant battle? That thankfulness does not produce joy in me because it is rooted in comparison rather than in what I am blessed with right now no matter how small.

I never saw my thankfulness and its hollow insides quite this way before! I realized how important it is for me to be thankful for what I have rather than for what I have as it relates to someone else. Thankfulness needs to be genuine even if it is as small as a grain of sand. God is doing something special in my life and I risk missing so much of it unless I am in the habit of being thankful for the blessings sitting in my lap.

As this week progressed, I think I found the arch enemy of thankfulness in my life... selfishness. In almost every unthankful moment I can also clearly see my desire to take care of myself rather than anyone else around. I might even consider good things, things that are easy to be thankful for, to be my due. If that is my mindset then how on earth can I expect myself to appreciate anything small, anything tough, anything less than the best? My selfishness sets me up to never be satisfied and to never appreciate blessings in my life. It also sets me up to be dangerously close to judging the wisdom and love of God based on the appearance of obvious blessings.

In light of these thoughts, I have been focusing on finding something to intentionally be thankful for in the midst of the trying moments life has brought me this week. When we hit absolutely every red light I might be thankful for the blessing of driving a car and the blessing of a road and stop lights that allow traffic to move quickly. When the kids are having a not-so-good day I might expand my horizons and thank God for the opportunity to raise them at all. I am surprised at how many little things there are to be thankful for!

This week has turned out to be quite a joy. I have found so much to be thankful for and can truly say that thankfulness produces joy! I am delighted with the change in my own heart following those simple words: “Thank you for...”. I have had fun thanking my husband for the wonder he is to me, thanking my little ones for their contributions to our family, and most of all, thanking God for all his blessings. It has been so refreshing to see the small blessings instead of the shortcomings inevitably found in comparison and the frustration of unsatisfied selfishness.

I am so THANKFUL for all I have learned and that God blesses my seemingly small effort with such great joy!

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Phl 4:6-7