Thanksgiving week. What is it for? Well, giving thanks. For all God has done, given us, things we usually forget to thank Him for, and even what we don’t think as a blessing in our lives. Usually it’s so easy to come up with a list of things we are all grateful for. And usually, they’re the same things that everyone else is thankful for. However, this year, God has given me the incredibly hard task of looking to the other things in life he blessed me with this year, and even right now in my life.
The list most people give are: Family, friends, a house, food to eat, clothing to wear, a car to drive, etc, etc, you get my point; moving on.
This year is much harder. There has been so much pain, heartache, heart break, let down, stress, worry.
Yes, all of those things most people are grateful for are wonderful, and I am too grateful for them, but I know there are much bigger, more important things God is asking me to just say “thank You” for. Like heartache that has grown me closer to Jesus. Let down that makes me run to Christ. Pain that only my Lord God can heal..in His time. He is teaching me patience, love, selflessness, diligence, and contentment with this life that He has blessed me with. I am truly thankful for all I have, but He is simply asking me to be content with everything else that makes up the rough patches in life.
Let me tell you, it’s hard. So tough to sit down and praise God for all the pain He has allowed. But I have been thinking about it a wrong sense. I am thankful for how I have grown, what I’ve learned; about me and about my Savior, things I have seen God do in other’s lives. I am thankful. Even though it means that I cry myself to sleep. Even though my plans for getting married have been removed from my life. Even though I go out to eat alone. I wake up with hope. Hope in the fact that I have a bright future no matter what my past looks like. No matter what I have done, or what others have done. God is sovereign, and in that, I give thanks.
Below is the song that my heart has clung to this week of tough decisions and growing up.
