Thankful Habits

"The grateful heart that springs forth in joy is not acquired in a moment, it is the fruit of a thousand choices". "Choosing Gratitude, p. 68

As with any habit, one of gratitude will take steady, slow plodding. But, praise the Lord, he has made us strong, and will not stop refining us until that day when we see him face to face!

Some of the reasons Nancy DeMoss shares for cultivating this "habit", or heart, are...
~It is an act of obedience, as commanded in Colossians 3:17. "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
~Because it brings us closer to our Lord. Think of it... we have a continual audience with God, for bringing both our needs AND our praises!
~It brings the Lord's peace ("Do not be anxious about anything, 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 your minds in Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 4:6-7)
~It is the evidence of and a mirror of Christ's spirit in us. We see many instances where Christ "gave thanks", and his spirit enables us to do the same!
~And this was my favorite point she made... it's preparation for heaven!!! Revelation tells us again and again that the angels, saints, and seraphim continually praise him! This is just the start of a glorious eternity!!!!

This thought of habits made me think of something that happened to me awhile ago. Have you ever thought of the fact that the answer you give to the question "how are you doing" can be a form of worship, thanks, and witness for our Savior?

"I've been doing pretty good, how about you?", I answered the older gentleman at church.
"Just good? Not great? How about blessed?!", he enthusiastically quaried.

It was kind of eye opening to me. I can be including a "thank you" to the Lord in polite "how-dee-doos". "The Lord has blessed me!" An acknowledgement to my Savior, and a witness to him to those that I'm talking to. And I can testify that this man does practice what he preaches, because I have heard him respond many times to the question how his week was with "I've been blessed!"

Habits, even small ones like a new phrase to answer a common question with, are not broken or made easily. But I think our habits get to the heart of the matter. If I am truly grateful to my Lord, EVERY act will be an act of worship. Even if it isn't whining, if it's not worship, it's not the best I can give my King!

Ice Cream v. Tooth Fairy

We went out to lunch with several members of our church this Sunday. Along with our family, and the visiting Pastor's family, there were about a dozen others there... we made up over half of the business in the three hours we were there, haha :). Daddy at one point asked the waitress, "Is the cook pulling his hair out yet?"
Look of "why would you think that": "Oh, no!"
Continues, very sincerely, "He doesn't have any hair to pull out."

While we were enjoying our lunch, we hear from the other end of the table(s -like, six, haha!) that Bethi had pulled a tooth. After we left, Tori told us that the conversation between them and a couple little boys who were there went something like this after the incident:
Little boy: "You'll have to remember to put that tooth under your pillow."
"We don't do the tooth fairy."
"Oh. Well I know the tooth fairy isn't real. You just loose a tooth and get free money for I don't know what reason-"
Abbi: "We get to stay up when we loose a tooth."
Little boy: "No. Fair."
Abbi hadn't even told them "we get to stay up and watch a movie and eat ice cream", she simply said "stay up," and he was so impressed, heehee :). It was cute!

Thankful: From the Heart

Does gratitude, or whining, dominate our life? Which defines "us"?

I know that for myself, I have a long way to go before gratitude is my INITIAL response, and I could be considered a truly grateful person. One of the things that God has been bringing to my attention this year has been my choice of words, and especially how some of them are the complete opposite of thankful speech.

Sentences like "So annoying..."
"I really don't want to do this"
"I *really* wish..."
And other generally fussing at things that inconvenience me or mess up my plans.

"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks". And I have to face the fact that these words do not come from the abundance of a thankful heart. They actually show the opposite -a heart that is discontent with what it finds around it. A heart discontent with the plan that the Lord, who keeps the planets in perfect motion and set our earth the only distance from the sun that would sustain life, has set for me. As if I knew better how to control my life! And that is not the kind of heart that gives glory to it's redeemer. And even if, outwardly, you might not voice your complaints, and you may seem to others to be a terribly grateful person, the Lord sees the heart.

But it's not enough to just "stop complaining". If you don't replace these thoughts with something else, that is all that your heart will dwell on, whether you voice it or not. You cannot create a void in your thoughts. You must either replace them with conscientious prayers of thanks and pleas for help when you are inclined to grumble, or you must accept defeat. Thoughts left unattended will not just do nothing, they will wander. Like sheep if the shepherd were just to hope that the sheep would stand still if he took a nap will go get into some sort of trouble, so will our thoughts. Thankfully, we CAN choose joy! But only through and for the Lord, or we fight a loosing battle!

This is probably the most convicting of these posts I will write, for me personally. I have so far to go in this area, I feel like I shouldn't be writing it! But at the same time, this is what the Lord has been showing me, and I think that admitting that will keep me more accountable, and hopefully encourage some of you, as well! May the Lord receive all glory!

Lilies and Quotes

Josiah loves his ball so much :). And he looks so old after his haircut this morning, I don't know what happened! It's sad!
Bethi and I took care of these liles this afternoon! We got them after a convention Daddy worked at last year. The coordinator had gotten these liles to decorate with, and she offered us several plants as we were cleaning up. Come to find out, Easter Lilies only bloom once a year, BUT, they do come back the next year if left alone! I was worried these ones might not, since they got left outside during the winter and got snowed on, but they came up a couple weeks ago, and I was so excited to see the green leaves :)! And that tallest one has it's flower stem :)... Gardening has always been my "happy place", and I miss it here, but it makes the small pot plants we have even more special :). I do believe I look on plants with as much love as I do cats, which is saying something, haha. But it does seriously pain me to so much as thin new sprouts, I've always hated sentencing that beauty to the compost heap :(.

I've been reading "Stepping Heavenward". It's one I've read several times, but each time I find something new from it :). This part really stood out to me this time. It's a section of questions/concerns and replies copied down into the "character's journal"...
"'In my prayers my mind has difficulty in finding anything to say to God. My heart is not in it, or it is inaccessible to my thoughts.'

'It is not necessary to say much to God. Oftentimes one does not speak much to a friend whom one is delighted to see; one looks at him with pleasure; one speaks certain short words to him that are mere expressions of feeling. The mind has no part in them, or next to none; one keeps repeating the same words. It is not so much a variety of thoughts that one seeks in intercourse with a friend as a certain repose and correspondence of the heart. It is thus we are with God, who does not disdain to be our tenderest, most cordial, most familiar, most intimate friend. ...It is necessary to content one's self with giving to Him what He gives it to give , a fervent heart when it is fervent, a heart firm and faithful in its aridity, when he deprives it of sensible fervor.'"

Thankful: To Who?

Any one can be thankful. We would all have to admit that, whether a person is giving thanks to a specific source or not, we have heard pretty much everybody in our lives saying, at some point, "Oh, I'm so thankful that/for...". So what is the difference between a natural and a Christ-centered thankfulness?

True Christ-centered gratitude does not simply say, "Oh, I'm so glad we have food to eat!". It is a gratitude pointed directly at Christ, acknowledging thankfulness to God for providing that food! Thank your Daddy for the hard work that God uses to bring it to the table -but don't forget to tell God thank you for your Daddy and his job, and the means to go get the food, either! But beyond just thanking God for those physical gifts to us, it is a deep thankfulness to God for His gift of spiritual life, that flows over every part of our life, making each act one of grateful service to him.

The root word for "grace", "gift", and "thanks" in the Greek is "charis". Nancy DeMoss points out, "The words are inseparable! And they should be inseparable in our hearts."

We do not just have a list of things that made us happy during the day to write down and then say, 'yep, I'm thankful!". We have something so precious, that even when no "happiness" comes from the day, we can still hold onto deep seated joy through our Savior and salvation. In everything, we have the assurance that "God's way are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts", and that he has plans to "bring us a future and a hope". Even in moments that may not make us "happy", we can be joyful in Christ because he is working out something that we can not see yet.

He has given us eternal life. Do we need anything else from him to be continually thankful? This one thing should fill our hearts to overflowing with joy no matter our circumstances!

These "Thankful" blog posts are inspired by Nancy Leigh DeMoss's book "Choosing Gratitude" :).