“I wonder, Lord, how do I honor You, while I am still desiring the very thing You saw fit to cut away?”
And then as soon as I take the next breath, I have my answer.
He whispers…”Give thanks.”

From Chapter 8 {Live Thankful}

“Life has a tendency to go on and on. When you are not ok with where you are, you still have to get up, make the coffee, go to work and feed the kids. There is some comfort in the routine, I confess. Other days, I’m so busy surviving my life I forget this is my life. “You only get one time around,” right?  It needs to be lived, counted, remembered and celebrated.  Each moment is precious. This moment is precious. A few years ago God began to show me I had to have my eyes wide open to the wonder around me. Even when I was not particularly ok with where I was sitting.

When God Gives You A Word Go With It

My pastor challenges our congregation every January to find a word to frame our year. He asks us in December to pray and seek God’s heart on the matter. Almost without exception, God has answered my prayers and strongly spoken a word to me.  In 2010, the word He gave me was thankfulness.

The timing was key. My fourth daughter was born in the fall of 2009 and a sweet gift for sure. However, sweet, she was not a fan of sleeping. In fact, she did not sleep much the first two and half years of her life. You could say, and I certainly would, that I was not ok. I was tired and at the end of my rope.

So with a single word, God called me out. He challenged me to begin where I was and start counting gifts. He said, I could not look on down the road, when sleep may come in shifts of 5-6 hours at a time. He wanted me to start counting now. The date was January 11, early in the morning I had read this:

“When you bring Me prayer requests, lay out your concerns before me. Speak to Me candidly; pour out your heart. Then thank me for the answers that I have set into motion long before you can discern results. When your requests come to mind again, continue to thank Me for the answers that are on the way. If you keep on stating your concerns to Me, you will live in a state of tension. When you thank Me for how I am answering your prayers, your mind-set becomes much more positive. Thankful prayers keep your focus on My Presence and My Promises.” Sarah Young, Jesus Calling for January 11 (Emphasis mine).

The next day, January 12, 2010 began with a flurry of activity at our house. I was packing my ten year old daughter for her first mission trip. She and her dad were headed to Haiti with an organization near to our hearts called New Missions. They were part of a team of  twenty or so dads and kids going to pass out shoe box gifts to hundreds of Haitian  children. My daughter was going to give a gift to our newly sponsored “daughter” named Shelcie. We were excited, busy, and nervous. But mostly, we were grateful to have the opportunity to introduce our oldest daughter to a compassion filled ministry to children and families in need.

The phone rang while we were trying to cram everything into her suitcase. My friend, Krystal, whose husband works for New Missions called to tell me there was an earthquake in Haiti and she thought the trip might be cancelled. A few minutes later, her intuition was confirmed when the leader of our trip called to say the trip was off. As we turned on the television to watch the news reports, my heart was overwhelmed. The images coming out of Port Au Prince were devastating. The destruction from the 7.0 earthquake was too much for my mind to conceive.

If the earthquake had occurred a mere 12 hours later, my husband and daughter would have been in the middle of it. I thought back to the sentence from Jesus Calling the day before, “thank me for answers I have set into motion long before you can discern the results.” I had not thought to ask God to protect them from an earthquake. But, God had already set the plan in motion.

I have no idea why God spared my family from this catastrophic event. I can tell you the mission they were headed to experienced some damage but no loss of life. I can also tell you long into the night after the first earthquake the Haitian people where heard singing and praising God for all He had done to protect them. They were heard singing. Can imagine?

Thankfulness broke into my life in a profound way. I needed it, too. This is where I had been living for far too long:

“Weariness for me is a habit of my heart. I get bogged down by the things of life because let’s face it—life is hard. I don’t want to be imprisoned by my weariness habit anymore. My thanksgiving, my daily counting joy filled gifts unlocks the prison and sets me free.” from “Hope for the Weary Mom”

So, in 2010 I began being intentionally grateful for God’s poured out blessings. I joined my friend and author of “One Thousand Gifts”, Ann Voskamp and other gratitude chasers on the same journey. Some days I  counted gifts like coffee, date nights, and handmade cards . Ok, I counted coffee more than once. I happen to be very grateful for coffee. Other days I counted gifts like safe travel for my husband, babies being born, and the strength to get through fourth grade math. I began to see the size of the gift really didn’t matter, only that it was counted:

“It’s the joy of the small that can make life large, and all wonder and worship can only grow out of small and humble things.” Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts.

My worship began to grow out of this small and humble beginning of simply saying thank you to the One who is the giver of all good things:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:7

He gave. I counted. But it was not all sunshine and roses. Many days, thankfulness was hard.

No, this was not year of fluff. I was learning a life lesson: thankfulness is a position of the heart. When I am thankful to God, my heart is turned towards His. When my heart is turned toward Him, I am able to see things with His perspective. The year of thankfulness was training my eyes see, period. ”

***

Has thankfulness broke into your life, too? If not, maybe today is the day to start. Thankfulness can radically change your perspective when you are living in the “I’m not ok with where I am” days. I know it did for me.

 God willing we’ll have chapter 9 right here next week. Same time. Same place.

xo,

Stacey

for more info on Being OK with Where You Are, go here.