Thanksgiving Think it Through Thursday (a week or so late)

This is what I wake up to every morning. I am incredibly blessed. 

I am so grateful for the three sweet boys in my life and I praise God for the way he sustains us every day.

This Is My Father’s World

 Psalm 69:29-34

But as for me, afflicted and in pain;

let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

I will praise the name of God with a song;

I will magnify him with thanksgiving,

This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

When the humble see it they will be glad;

You who seek God, let your hearts revive.

For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise

His own people who are prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise him,

The seas and everything that moves in them.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we have a lot to be grateful for: a nation in which we are free to worship and where we have incredible opportunities; churches and pastors who treasure and proclaim the gospel; a God who is supremely worthy of praise, who is the author of “every good and every perfect gift” (James 1:17), who is “infinite, eternal and unchangeable” and who embodies all “wisdom, power, justice, holiness, goodness and truth” (WSC). We can see His glory in the beauty of creation, trees that are a riot of color and an earth that abounds in good things to eat and drink. He has blessed us with tongues to taste delicious food and good wine, mouths to laugh and sing, eyes to appreciate the beauty around us. We can enjoy and take comfort in relationships with friends and family.

Some of us this year can thank the Lord for good health, others may be battling illness, have lost pregnancies, have sick children or are grieving for lost loved ones. Many people have bills that can’t be paid, have lost jobs and homes, or have a struggling marriage. There is real pain and sadness in our lives and it can be difficult to lift our hearts in Thanksgiving. Some of us are pleased with the results of last week’s election, others are sad, angry and fearful of the future—unable or unwilling to see the hand of God in this decision.

Psalm 69 is a Psalm of David, through the first 28 verses he cries out to the Lord—describing his desolate physical situation, his sadness, shame, and fear. Then, at the end of the passage, he writes: “BUT.” A resounding, “BUT”—a dramatic change from the attitude of the previous verses. A declaration that regardless of pain and affliction, yet will he sing! God’s salvation still raises David from despair and revives his heart. Like David, in the midst of trial, our focus must be on the greatness and majesty of the Lord, who does not change and is always worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. The Almighty is not deaf to our struggles, He hears our prayers and sympathizes with us in our weakness.

Above all else, God is sovereign. He has not left the world to its own devices.

This is my Father’s world,

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world

And let me ne’er forget,

That though the wrong seems oft’ so strong,

God is the ruler yet.

God is the ruler yet! No decision, ruler or government is outside of His sovereign control.  We live in a broken world, BUT our good, loving God is in control. We experience real pain and affliction, BUT God holds us in the palm of His sovereign hand. “I rest me in that thought!”

Lord, this Thanksgiving, let us be reminded that we are blessed beyond anything we could ask or imagine because we have the gift of your Son and the salvation that He made possible by His blood. When we are tried and hurt, remind us that all things work together for good to those who love you. Let us come before you with hearts ready to praise and with gratitude that flows from our lips and hearts in joy and irrepressible song! Amen.

Think it Through Thursday

I just started reading Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts. If you haven't read it, put it on your list and have a box of tissues ready at your side. It's a book you should read slowly, to be digested slowly. She deals with big, hard questions in this book and talks about real, hard life issues. It's convicting and inspiring in so many ways, God speaks through scripture on every page  In the book, the author is struggling, (at least in the first 5 chapters) to grasp and fully know the joy that God promises in a world that is full of pain and loss. Ann's premise is that ingratitude is what keeps us from seeing and knowing God's grace, at the challenge of a friend she begins to list one thousand gifts. Many are simple, everyday things. Noticing beauty in the common, in the details. She looks at this list as a way to learn gratitude, to be thankful and to see God's grace in the big things, one has to be thankful for (and notice) the small. Here is a section of the book that I found particularly convicting.

"It is true, I never stop wanting to learn the hard eucharisteo (thanksgiving) for the deathbeds and dark skies and the prodigal sons. But I accept this is the way to begin, and all hard things come in due time and with practice. [...] Gratitude for the seemingly insignifican--a seed--this plants the giant miracle. The miracle of eucharisteo, like the Last Supper, is in the eating of crumbs, the swallowing down one mouthful. Do not disdain the small. The whole of the life--even the hard--is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole. These are new language lessons, and I live them out. There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up.

I, too, had read it often, the oft-quoted verse: " And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20). And I, too, would nod and say straight-faced, "I'm thankful for everything." But in this counting gifts, to one thousand, more, I discover that slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life. A lifetime of sermons on "thanks in all things" and the shelves sagging with books on these things and I testify: life-changing gratitude does not fasten to a life unless nailed through with one very specific nail at a time." (p. 57)

I am so guilty of that "slapping a sloppy brush of thanksgiving," especially in my prayers. "Lord, thank you for your many blessings." Does not acknowledging each blessing keep me from fully seeing the incredible gift? I think this acknowledging would definitely focus my mind and heart on what I have been given, on the grace, rather than on what I don't have. Contentment starts here. I'm tempted to start a list of my own, train my eyes and mind and heart to see the grace in everyday things. 

Abundant: Think it Through Thursday (on Friday...)

My husband and I were chatting the other day about New Year's Resolutions. It's been the topic of everything from radio shows to magazine articles to blog posts to...well, you get the idea. W said he thought a New Year's resolution was kind of silly, he thinks we should have resolutions and make changes all year long. I said I agreed, but that I also think there's something motivating about a fresh start. Although it can also be an excuse to put off making changes, "Oh, yeah, I'm starting my diet TOMORROW." "AFTER New Year's I'm going to start doing the dishes."

There's a blog I follow called The Lettered Cottage, if you haven't read it you should check it out. Anyway, this week Layla posted about choosing a word for the year. Not really a "resolution" so much as an idea or an inspiration or a reminder. It seemed to me in glancing through the links over at Lettered Cottage, that most of the words that people chose were verbs relating to attitudes and outlooks on life.

Words are powerful. They can be truly hurtful or incredibly encouraging. They can tear people down or bolster their confidence. They can make a marriage stronger or destroy it. Prayer (through the work of the Holy Spirit) has power to change us, it humbles our hearts and teaches us to lean on the Father and it's a way for us to come into the presence of God and pour out our hearts in supplication for hurting or sick friends, family or strangers. Words are a gift and we need to take care not to wield them like weapons or use them to make excuses.

One of my favorite books in the world is Rachel Jankovic's, Loving the Little Years. If you are a Mama raising babies and toddlers it is an absolute must-read! There's a section in this book where Rachel writes about having a one year old, a two year old and newborn twins all at the same time (gives me some perspective with my single 19 month old). She describes the craziness and how incredibly hard it was. She goes on to say that during this time (changing diapers for 4 and nursing 2), she caught herself using the word "overwhelmed" several times a day-in answer to questions about how she was doing and also to herself. I'm sure that no one observing her life would have called her nuts or selfish for feeling "overwhelmed," but Rachel said she realized that in a way she was throwing herself a pity party. She decided to cut that word out of her vocabulary, to dive into this hectic life that God had given her and tackle the work cheerfully. She replaced a negative word in her life with something positive and she said that there was a palpable change for the better in their household after her change of attitude.

We all do this with words. "I'm just worn out" or "I'm so stressed right now." These may be the truest words ever spoken, but maybe they shouldn't be spoken. Maybe take out these negative words and replace them with something positive. I know this is something I need to do on a daily basis. When my husband walks in and asks how my day was I often say "It was a LONG day." The unspoken insinuation being that it was very full of unpleasantness, too much to handle and I had to do lots of things I didn't want to do and the toddler ran me ragged (or didn't take a nap or shredded a whole roll of toilet paper or learned to climb on the dining room table or dropped an electric razor in the toilet...the list is endless). I'm going to start thinking of my days as "abundant" instead of burdened and long. I am abundantly blessed with work, abundantly blessed with friends and family and an awesome 19 month old and the best, kindest husband in the world.

I don't mean that I'm going to (or that I think anyone should) adopt a weird, sappy, sweet demeanor that just ignores hard, unpleasant, real-life stuff, but an attitude that says "I'm not going to dwell on the bad, I'm going to appreciate and revel in what I have." Imagine how great it would be if in 2012, everytime you start to say, "I'm so stressed, " you say "I am so blessed" or you think "I'm so annoyed" but instead you say "I'm overjoyed." It might seem a bit over-the-top at first, particularly if you start speaking in rhymes, but it could be a good reminder to chalk up all the many reasons you have to be thankful and give some perspective on the one or two that you may have to be legitimately stressed, annoyed or overwhelmed about.

Have an abundant year, everybody!

Think it Through Thursday

A sweet family at our church in KY adopted a little boy from Africa last Spring. Just a few short months after his arrival in the US, he was diagnosed with cancer. He went home to be with His Savior on Wednesday. Throughout the incredibly difficult months, this family has had such a testimony of faith and have proclaimed God's glory and grace in so many ways (and I have only been hearing their story from a distance).

If you'd like to read more, they have a blog HERE.

I'm sure these next few days will be incredibly tough, pray for them!

Think it Through Thursday

I've been quite the absentee blogger this week! Santa's workshop has been in full swing, along with filling some Etsy orders and running around shopping and getting ready for our church's service of lessons and carols...not much time for taking pics of what I've been making. Assuming I have some sunlight tomorrow, I'll be back with some new stuff tomorrow!!

Just because it's Thursday and the Christmas season, here is a verse I love from Hark the Herald.

"Hark! The herald angels sing:
'Glory to the newborn King!'
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!'
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies.
With the angelic host proclaim:
'Christ is born in Bethlehem'
Hark! The herald angels sing
'Glory to the newborn King!"

God and sinners reconciled! What joy! How much we have to sing about this Christmas season!

Thanksgiving: Think it Through Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving! Here's what I've got going...

Every week our Pastor writes an article and sends it to the congregation. It's on all kinds of topics, this week was the history of Thanksgiving. The entire article should be available on our church's website soon, I'll post a link when it's there!

Here is just a small part of it, but I thought it particularly meaningful today. What a heritage we have in this country of Godly leadership! Something to pray for in the years to come.

On November 29, 1623 three years after their [the Pilgrims' ] arrival and two years after the first Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation of a day of thanksgiving.

“To all Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes and garden vegetable and has made the forest abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the meeting house on the hill between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime on Thursday, November 29 in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three, in the third year since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock there to listen to the pastor and render thanksgiving to Almighty God for all His blessings. William Bradford, Governor of the Colony”

On October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued a formal proclamation, passed by an Act of Congress, initiating the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving. Part of what Lincoln said is as follows: “We give thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens….it is announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord….It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”

Think it Through Thursday

A few months ago, P and I went on a long road trip with my sister-in-law and her sweet children. We spent eleven hours in a mini-van with a one year old, a four year old and a five month old. It actually was not half as hectic as I had expected, it always seems that way after the fact. One of the things that kept the two older kids entertained was a CD of Veggie Tales singing familiar praise songs on repeat. Now, while the vocal quality was perhaps not ideal (squeaky broccoli and asparagus children must not have access to voice lessons) my nephew loved this recording. He knew all the words to every song and sang them at the top of his lungs. His favorite was, “I Can Only Imagine.”  I’ve heard this song many times, but those words have never affected me the way that they did when sung by this child with his clear, soprano, boy voice. Every time the chorus came around, he raised his chin and almost shouted with excitement and abandon:

“Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still? Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing, hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine!”

It wasn’t long before I had tears rolling down my cheeks.  I was not only touched to hear a four year old singing about the Savior, but his absolute delight was such a picture of what my hope of heaven should be. (I was sitting in the backseat crying while my sister-in-law gave me questioning looks in the rearview mirror...)

In a recent sermon, my pastor said “Heaven should be more real to us than the air we breathe.” Too often, Heaven seems like a distant dream or safety net or something that stands between me and anxiety for my life or the lives of friends and family. The thought of Heaven can be comforting if we have lost someone dear to us, but Heaven cannot be just comfort in a world that is full of sin and pain. It’s not just a place we will go to escape death or to be reunited with loved ones who have gone before—as true as those things are, they pale in comparison with what we have been promised.

In Heaven, we will stand in the presence of the Father and the Son. We will be glorified, not even a shadow of our old desire to sin will remain. We will worship with abandon and rejoice in the majesty and power of God and His amazing work of Salvation.  This is what we should long for with every fiber of our beings! This is what we should be thankful for with every breath!

Thanksgiving is coming up next week.  Many families have traditions that involve each person listing something that they are thankful for. We have lots of blessings to name, all for which we should be truly thankful--God’s good gifts like family, friends, church families, health, jobs, this country, and a place to live. But, even if we had none of these things, we would still have cause for real thanksgiving. As children of God, no matter what the circumstances, we have the hope of Heaven. We should throw our arms up, tilt our heads back, dance and shout with joy because we know that we will one day stand in the presence of God. This Thanksgiving, enjoy family and good food and good wine, remembering that as good as these things are, they are mere crumbs of the feast that we will enjoy eternally in Heaven with our Lord and Savior. 

Think it Through Thursday: Reactions

Do you remember being in school and learning: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction?" I do, and I think that I've applied it to all of life since that day.

Just kidding, sort of.

I think a lot of us, myself included, have the tendency to feel entitled. We are entitled to this-or-that kind of service in a restaurant, common courtesy from strangers, not having to wait in long lines at the fabric store (Grrr, Joann's, get it together!), free healthcare (don't get me started), or for whatever we think is "fair." If I feel that I've been slighted or haven't gotten my due, I can react with an "equal and opposite reaction" and competely justify it in my mind.

I act grouchy and cold to the lady at Joann's because she was on the phone to a friend and the line was kept waiting half the day. My husband accidentally steps on my foot, I respond angrily.

The problem is that I'm not entitled to any of these things. As people of God, we are commanded to humbly consider others better than ourselves and "look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Phil. 2:3-4), but nothing in me is deserving of special treatment and I shouldn't try to demand it from anyone else. In fact, I'm supposed to be a servant. To give up my place in line to an elderly person (even though I'm trying to placate a fussy toddler who is eating the stickers off of my spools of thread), to respond sweetly to my husband when he swings the baby around and P's huge head knocks me in the eyebrow (I had a very large bruise for a very long time), to smile at the person giving me the evil eye for taking pictures in a restaurant.

In short, I need to NOT have "an equal and opposite reaction." Thank God that He decided to extend grace to me even as I betray and hurt the Savior with my sin countless times every day, He went to the cross for me. Rather than the death that I deserve, Christ took my judgment upon Himself. He "made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [...] He humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross." (Phil. 2:7-8)

"Think it Through" Thursday

I am currently a stay at home Mama. I studied music in college and for a masters--voice performance and choral conducting-- and then taught for a few years after I got married. I love teaching, seeing the variety of personalities in my students, the different ways they respond to music or new information, and hearing a finished piece performed. I also loved the variety it punched into my day or week, class changes, running around to different campuses, etc... 

Staying at home has been an adjustment. I had planned to work part time after Baby P was born, but after a long hospital stay on bedrest and P being born two months prematurely, any kind of childcare with other little ones was just not an option during that first year. I was so wrapped up in Baby that the change of plans didn't bother me, but as the months passed I definitely got into a bit of a funk, one that I have to consciously remind myself not to succumb to even now. I sometimes felt underappreciated, using every fiber of your being and every ounce of energy to serve a little creature without the ability to smile at you or say "Thank you very much for all that you do, Mama. I truly appreciate the 3 am snack, " can be physically and emotionally exhausting. In addition, our culture (and we ourselves) has made idols of tangible accomplishments like power, wealth, influence and job status. Even Christians, who know that their identity as children of God is the only thing that matters, we are still often discontent with our situation in life. When you give in to the kind of self-focused thinking that craves recognition for your work or your talents, mothering can be downright depressing. The very necessary, day-to-day tasks of caring for little ones, of maintaining a household and raising children with moral integrity are unlikely to bring in six-figures or a promotion. The thing is, if you are a mama and a wife, that's exactly where you are supposed to be and what you are supposed to be working toward. It doesn't matter if the work you do is appreciated, if the meal you worked hours on is pronounced delicious or not, if the floor that you so laboriously cleaned is muddied within minutes. The work you do for your children and your husband is fruit, we are called to bear fruit. Read this quote from Loving the Little Years by Rachel Jankovic.

"God does not tell us to necessarily be strategic with our fruit. We do not need to know what will happen to the fruit.[...] What happens to all of our fruit is not our problem. That doesn't mean that we are not to care about the fruit. While it is on our branches, it is our life work. It is an offering to God, and we ought to care intensely about the quality of our fruit. But the branches are our responsibility; the ground is not.

I think that in some ways we have let our cultural admiration for efficiency get into places that it doesn't belong. Speaking for myself, sometimes I am working away on something and just cannot shake the question, 'Why am I doing this? Is this a ridiculous use of my time? Should I be doing something that matters, rather than (say) knitting a costumed mouse?' But it is very freeing to laugh at yourself--laugh when you know that "apple" you were working on may very well fall to the ground, and who cares? But the chances are good that the more fruit you make the more fruit gets used. The more you throw yourself into heavy branches, the more inviting the fruit and the more inviting the fruit, the more people it is likely to feed.

You cannot know the depth of His plan for your fruit. So throw it out there on the ground when you have no plan for its future. Waste it. Waste homemade pasta and the mess it makes on your family. Don't save cloth napkins for company only--sew a dress your daughter doesn't really need. Be bountiful with your fruit, and free with it. The only thing that you know for certain is that God will use it."

Rachel refers often here to efficiency in her discussion of fruit. I think it can also really apply to your opinion of whether or not your fruit (i.e. your life's work) will be appreciated. Do I hold back from making brownies this afternoon because I don't think my family will appreciate them? Do I grudgingly pick up after my husband or put away the laundry because I know he may not even notice when he gets home from work? Do I feel discontent or pout because no one noticed how much work it was to clean the entire house today?

The thing is, it doesn't matter if what I do here in my home for my family is ever recognized. I am responsible for the fruit I bear, the quality of the fruit and my own attitude while I do it. That does matter, every action, project, meal, or play time is used by God- very likely to shape and sanctify me more into the image of Christ.