Thanksgiving and Gratitude
“I Receive ALL of Life with Thanksgiving. I have gratitude for EVERYTHING that has ever occurred to bring me to this moment. I give thanks for the joys and the sufferings, the moments of peace and the flashes of anger, the compassion and the indifference, the roar of my courage and the cold sweat of my fear. I accept gratefully the entirety of my past and my present life.”
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Too many days in my life I have failed to give thanks for the bad. It’s so very easy to thank God for the shelter over your head and the food in your belly, but to fail to thank Him for the tragedy you had to suffer. Why would you ask thanks for such a thing, you ask?
Lots and lots of things have happened in my past that have shaped the Sarah that I am today…and quite a lot of them are not fun things. They are not things or situations that I would have chosen for myself. Honestly, 90% of the time I looked down my nose at people who have now experienced what I have. I judged. I was better than that. And then the world came crashing down February 2, 2004. I’m not going to disclose the details of that day today because that’s not the point of this post. I remember every aspect of that day. I remember what I was wearing. I remember that it started to snow. It was that day and all the days after it that changed me. At the time I couldn’t possibly see how Ry and I were going to come out of it. Thankfully, God has a plan for everything…even the tragedy. I hurt more than I’d ever hurt before. My pride, my emotions, my family, my home…everything was a house of cards. However, when everything falls away you really only have one thing left to look to…things are a lot more clear. I believe that was the point of it all along. Sitting in the spot that I am now, if I knew that I was going to have to go through all of that to get where I am now I would do it again with arms wide open.
“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope.”
~Romans 5:3-4
I only say all of this just to remind us all to yes, be thankful for the goodness and loveliness that has blessed our lives this 2009, but to also be thankful for the suffering. The suffering is what is going to shape you. The suffering is what is going to build you.
On this day I am thankful for so many things. I am thankful for my husband and the love and encouragement he brings me on a daily basis. I am thankful for my friends, who sometimes know me better than myself and love me anyways. I am thankful for my job and the money it brings me. I am thankful for a faulty heart because it has shown me how strong I really am. Along those same lines, I am thankful for the knowledge of doctors that know how to fix faulty hearts and torn shoulders. I am thankful for precious babies and for the reminder that we all can start new. What are you thankful for on this day?
Happy Thanksgiving, my dear friends!
No related posts.
Happy Thanksgiving Sarah! There are so many things to be thankful for!! I’m happy and thankful to have a wonderful son who is healthy and to be happy and healthy myself, and to have a job!
I hope you had a wonderful day!