Grateful

Brennan Manning once wrote: "The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness." I have continued to be challenged and encouraged by the lyrical book, One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voscamp. And I continue to be amazed at how quickly and effortlessly I can slide into ingratitude. Sure, we think of things like sorrow and tragedy and hardship as enemies of a grateful heart. But just as deadly, perhaps more so, are busyness and exhaustion born of rushing and relentless accomplishment and frenzy. Somehow I must find the time... I must make the time, to be still before God. Take the time to savor the evening sky and the twinkle in my child's eye and the smell of pine needles. How can I be grateful unless I slow down enough to truly see and then to verbalize my thankfulness?

Rather than complaining about hauling all the Christmas decorations back up the stairs (and isn't it always sad putting them away for a year?), I could choose to thank the Lord for the gift of another year to celebrate His birth with my dear family. Rather than grumble about the mountains of laundry, I could choose gratitude for the gift of loved ones, and for the fact they have clothes, and for the water and soap and washing machine in which to wash them. Rather than slogging through the preparation and clean up of another meal, I can rejoice that we have food to eat--and even such an abundance of food that we can choose what to eat--and a warm, safe house in which to eat, and a table with chairs and loved ones with which to share our meal.

If the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth could pick up a towel and wash filthy feet, how can I complain about serving and loving those dearest to me? I always love looking at a little sticky note I have over my kitchen sink: "I am here to serve with joy." How I need that reminder! How prone I am to want to be served rather than to serve. But it is in loving and serving others that we discover joy and peace. And in choosing to serve with gratitude in our hearts, we find that joy suddenly bubbling up and splashing all over us.

But we have to choose. Choose to serve and love. And choose to be grateful. It's just that simple. Choose thanksgiving. There simply is no pit too deep, no valley too wide that gratitude cannot be the ladder or the bridge that pulls us up out of the muck and mire.

So today I choose gratefulness. Thank You Lord for Christmas. Thank You for children and for friends and for the chores that remind us of full lives and of loved ones for whom we have the privilege to serve and help. Thank You for the bracing cold weather of winter and the change of seasons. Thank You for fresh starts--and that each new day is the opportunity to begin anew. Thank You that You never ever give up on us. Thank You for laughter. Thank You for tears and for the gift of emotions so that we can feel deeply, even when it hurts. Thank You for food... especially chocolate. You really did some good work when You made chocolate! Thank You for friends and the joy and richness they bring to our lives. Thank You for the beauty of this world that sometimes takes our breath away with it's lushness and wonder and variety. Thank You for our differences that keeps life lively and interesting. Thank You for music. Thank you for the warmth of home and for a light in the darkness. Thank You for books. And thank You for the greatest gift of all--for the Lord Jesus and for His love that is greater and deeper and wider than we could ever hope or imagine or dream. In response to so many blessings, might we have hearts that overflow with gratitude and love. To God be the glory.