Each morning I wake up my kids, give them a hug and tell them good morning. One of those children (I’ll protect him today) wakes up grumpy more often than not. He frequently greets me with a complaint. He didn’t get enough sleep. He doesn’t want to do a particular thing at school today. His stomach hurts. His head hurts. His foot hurts. His back hurts. His neck hurts. Friends, those are all real complaints from the last few weeks.
The other child wakes up and 98 percent of the time greets me with, “Good morning Mommy. I love you.” The other complains first and then with some pressure from me will usually then offer his good morning. This has been such a common thing lately that I can’t stop thinking about it and what a difference it makes for the tone of the day.
One morning a couple weeks ago, the one woke up early. He came and found me in my room. The very first thing he said to me was, “my back hurts.” I responded with, “good morning to you, too.” In that same instant I felt God saying, “that’s what you do to me.” Um, ouch. And, I’m sorry.
I make it a point to have quiet time with God before the kids get up each day. But I frequently get up and go straight to him with my list of needs. I would like to believe that I’m well-meaning about it. I mean I have a list of all the people and issues that I’m praying for. That’s good a thing right? Well, sort of. I definitely believe in the power of prayer and that we absolutely should pray without ceasing. We should take our needs and the needs of others to Him. I believe that 100 percent, and it’s not up for negotiation. However, I think God has been showing me some additional perspectives lately.
Most notably, He’s been taking me on a deep dive through thankfulness. Obviously, this is the season of Thanksgiving, so we’re seeing that message all over the place. But as of this moment, I believe thankfulness and gratitude is a bit like peeling an onion. There are layers. My children have been focused on the things they are thankful for, and that’s good. We see these 30-days of thankful posts on social media – also good. It never hurts to pause and be thankful in any form.
That’s surface-level gratitude, though. There’s more. And it gets harder. God is not some wish-granting genie in the sky. He’s not there to just give us things or make life exactly how we want it. He has shown me over and over recently, that real gratitude needs to be in the hard stuff. I need be thankful when I don’t get what I ask for. When the answer is no. When I don’t understand the why. I need to be grateful for God.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul tells us, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” In everything. Some translations tell us to be thankful in all circumstances. This doesn’t just mean to just say thanks for my health, house, clothes, food and people. That’s the main list, right? That our principle needs are met.
Can I be grateful when life is really hard? When maybe some needs aren’t met? When health is not perfect? When God has taken away? When the losses mount? Can I be thankful even then?
That’s what I’m focused on this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. I’m working on spending my first minutes of the day with God in real thanksgiving. Being focused on Him and nothing else. Not stuff or health or people. Him. For sure, I’m grateful that He has allowed me the life that I have, but He gives and He takes away. And if I can’t be earnestly thankful to Him in the valleys then how do I know my gratitude on the mountaintops even real? That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to pray for people. Please don’t misunderstand.
I want to note here that just because He has put it on my heart enough to write about it doesn’t mean I’ve personally perfected this. Quite the opposite. He has shown me that I really need to practice this. I’ve written before than as I’m personally coming out of a season of loss, God has me focused on seeking Him. I’ve spent the last three months hyper-focused on it. Deliberately choosing to put much of my time into seeking, chasing, learning and knowing God. What I have learned in that time is gratitude in all things is a key in finding Him. It’s like it unlocks a secret door.
Jesus is enough. He has to be enough. All the things I perceive as missing, lacking or having been taken away are because I take my eyes off of Him as enough. The deeper I dig into gratitude the more I find this to be true. When I wake up in the morning and immediately think about all the things that I think He needs to fix or solve, my perspective is wrong. If I can wake up and greet Him with love and gratitude then I’m starting my day from a place of abundance instead of a place of need.
I am trying to give thanks during the hard moments of each day. I will emphasize trying because much of the time I straight up fail. But I will keep at it. Like everything we want to be good at, it takes practice. I’m two weeks into a Bible study that also focuses on gratitude (and yes, I believe He led me right to this particular one). The author talks about how gratitude always precedes the miracle. What an amazing thought. If I can find gratitude in all the things it will be a miracle.
What a difference it could make in our lives to view all things with that kind of thanks. It changes our entire perspective when we give God thanks in everything and trust His love for us. As we enter into this season of holidays that can bring many added challenges, my prayer is that each of us can be earnestly grateful in all things and witness the miracle it brings.
