Thanks

Today was the first Sunday I got to go to church since surgery!!! I missed it so much, and absolutely love my church.

Brian talked about the Spirit of Thanksgiving today, and it was definitely a message I needed to hear. From the Shakespeare play, King Lear, a famous quote has risen: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." I imagine that is how God feels so much of the time with us, and especially me.

He also compared our magnitude of gratitude to basically any product on the market these days. There's always a good, better, best of the same product. The same is true for our thanksgiving.

It's good to give thanks for our past (pretty easy)
It's better to give thanks for our future challenges (still do-able)
It's best to give thanks for our present difficulties (super hard)

And that really hit me. My first reaction was, why would I ever be thankful for the hard times I'm going through right now? Why would I be thankful for this pain and hardship? But truth be told, I don't have ANY idea what God is going to do with me through this experience, and everyday that I live. I mean even with all the surgeries I have had, I recently was given the opportunity to help someone else who is having a really hard time post-op, and having to be physically limited for a while. Now, I'm not sure if anything I said helped...but just the fact that I had the perspective to offer was totally a God thing.

Now, while not every pain in my life or yours is physical...nonetheless we are told in Ephesians 5:20 to be thankful ALWAYS, in EVERY circumstance. It doesn't say to be thankful sometimes, when the conditions are favorable....or just for a few circumstances. As hard as it is, we must be thankful for absolutely everything we go through...something I will daily strive to do.