Choose to be Thankful

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."  1 Thessalonians 5:18

"Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you have made to the Most High."  Psalm 50:14

Here we are in the month of November, a time of year when everyone suddenly remembers there are things for which they are thankful!  I am glad that there is at least one month a year where thankfulness is on the hearts and minds of a lot of people but there are 11 other months of the year when it seems thankfulness is forgotten and replaced with a lot of complaining.  Complaining is a nasty little spiritual sickness that we ALL seem to stay sick with more often than not!  "Do everything without complaining and arguing."  Philippians 2:14.  It is easy to complain. It is natural in our human sinful flesh to let complaining be our first response to uncomfortable, inconvenient, and negative situations.  I think it stems from our need to be heard and noticed.  We feel wronged or overloaded or inconvenienced and we want someone to notice.  We want someone to agree with us in our complaint and say it shouldn't be so.  That whatever it is that is causing us to complain needs to take a hike and remove itself from our life.  If this is stepping on some toes, don't worry I speak from deep personal experience with this issue.  I am getting very real here!  When I spend an hour sweeping and mopping my floors and one of my children runs in tracking dirt all over those freshly mopped floors I complain.  If I spend an hour or two making dinner and nobody offers to help clean up afterward I complain.  If I have to sit in a traffic jam I complain.  If I don't get the help I think I deserve from a customer service representative I complain (ok I actually do more than complain in this instance...I get angry and sometimes even ugly toward the company I am speaking with.  I need big doses of forgiveness and grace!)  Why do I do this?  Plain and simple, I feel the need to let someone know I was overlooked, or inconvenienced or put in a place that I didn't want to be in.  I wanted someone to say that I was justified in feeling this way.  Misery loves company.  But guess what?  While misery loves company, thankfulness actually invites company!  It's so much more pleasant to be around people who exude an attitude of gratitude!  I know people who have a pleasant way about them even when there is so much in their lives going wrong. While they are honest with their struggles, they try hard to keep their hearts and minds focused on Christ and have such a trust in Him, such a deep appreciation for all He has done for them that even in the hard times they find reasons to be thankful.  
As long as we are living and breathing there is a reason to be thankful. It is something we must choose to think about and put into practice.  We have to fight against that natural nature of us to complain.  We must consciously choose to be thankful.  My prayer for myself and all of us Christians is that we would go beyond the month of November in our thankfulness and make thankfulness a way of our lives.  Practice being thankful until it becomes a habit.  Next time those kids run through your house on those freshly mopped floors, stop take a deep breath and thank God for the energy and ability to mop the floors, for healthy kids who can run and make a mess and for another day He has given you to live and breathe and be with those you love.  There is always a choice, choose thankfulness!

Psalm 136:1-9 & 23-26
"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to the God of gods.  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to the Lord of lords.  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles.  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to him who made the heavens so skillfully.  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to him who placed the earth among the waters.  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights- His faithful love endures forever.  The sun to rule the day, His faithful loves endures forever.  And the moon and stars to rule the night.  His faithful love endures forever...
He remembered us in our weakness.  His faithful love endures forever.  He saved us from our enemies.  His faithful love endures forever.  He gives food to every living thing.  His faithful love endures forever.  Give thanks to the God of heaven.  His faithful love endures forever."

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