Living with a Thankful Heart Every Day

Thanksgiving just passed, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! My family and I traveled to my parents house, and it was a wonderful time! It was nowhere near relaxing, but spending the time with my family, busy or not, is always a great time! I hope you all experienced the same joy from the holiday!

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays! I’ve always loved the whole idea behind Thanksgiving! Being thankful for everything that we have, and for everything that the Lord has done for us, and will continue to do for us! It’s easy to think back to everything that we have, and how the Lord has worked in our lives, one day out of the year. But do you take time, every day, to thank Him for everything He has given you? I know I always seem to forget to do that.

What is Thanksgiving?

The expression of gratitude, especially to God.

onelook.com

When I looked up the definition, this was the first one I found. The expression of gratitude, especially to God. When I read this, it really shows how important it is that we take the time to say thank you to the Lord. He has done so much for us, most of the time we don’t always see it!

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
    His love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34

We can even see how it’s important to take the time to thank the Lord for what He has done for us! His love endures forever, and He is good!

Being thankful even when we don’t see it

I think one of the biggest things that I struggle with is always being thankful, even when I can’t fully see what the Lord has planned for us. Our youngest son, he’s 3 years old, has had constant ear infections since Labor Day. I had felt like we were living at the doctor’s office, because every time I turned around he seemed to get another one! Then there was the constant battle of getting him to take his antibiotics! It was a fight through and through. When this was all going on, it took me quite a bit of time to fully understand what the Lord was doing. I couldn’t bring myself to be thankful, because what was there to be thankful for? Our son was in pain, and there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. One day when we took him to the doctors, because of another ear infection, I had asked his pediatrician if this was normal, or if this was something we should be concerned about. She referred him to an ENT, because of how frequent the ear infections were. There they determined he should get tubes put in, because that will help with the infections.

Now, I know that kids getting tubes put in is very normal. However, I didn’t see the reason to be thankful until they explained how much this is going to help him! They explained that because of all the fluid that he had; he wasn’t really hearing the way he should. They also explained that this could help him with his speech as well! So here we are, having constant ear infections, to finally figuring out that these tubes could be helpful in so many areas, not just draining the fluid! That is when I felt so thankful to the Lord for allowing our son to go through this. Although no parents want to see their child in pain over and over, but I’m thankful for that pain because in the end it’s going to make him so much better!

The Lord has ways of using these normal, painful situations, and turning them into good! It’s a reminder to us that He always has His best interest in mind for us!

I thank and praise You, God of my ancestors:
    You have given me wisdom and power,
You have made known to me what we asked of You,
    You have made known to us the dream of the king

Daniel 2:23

Living a Thankful Life

After going through Thanksgiving, and really having some time to think about what the Lord has done for me and my family, it made it clear that I need to live a life of thanksgiving every day! The Lord has done, and will continue to do, so much for us that I will never be able to thank Him enough.

I will give thanks to You, Lord, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all Your wonderful deeds.

Psalms 9:1

My friends, I encourage you to stop and think about all that the Lord has done for you! Consider the situations, in your life currently, that may seem like nothing good will come of them, and then consider how the Lord could be using them for good! Be thankful for those hardships, because we never know what the Lord is doing!

I do understand that sometimes that’s hard. Trust me, I get it! So if you ever feel like you can’t be thankful for something, trying thanking the Lord for things He has done for you, and for things that you know He will continue to do!

Until next time!