One of the things I love most about teaching the 'tween class at church is seeing the light come on in their eyes when a spiritual concept clicks in their heads. We were discussing the need to pray with thanksgiving. I used an example of a recent situation where my back was having spasms and very painful. I told them I stretched out on the floor and thanked God for healing my back and making the spasms go away. They asked if it had already quit hurting. I told no, I was thanking Him in advance for the healing and waiting with expectations of it happening. Knowing God can heal is one thing. Knowing to wait, trusting, and expecting the healing is another. Giving thanks before the healing shows more faith than begging God to do something. Within minutes, the spasms stopped, the pain went away, and I got up off the floor and went back to work. Thankfulness in advance allowed me to be a walking talking witness for the Lord that day. A divine opportunity to share his mercy, healing compassion and mighty works all rolled into one.
My class picked up the fact that I gave thanks in advance and waited with expectation. I shared that the Bible says we are to give thanks through all things, all situations – good or bad. Can we be thankful in the face of the bad things? Of course! We are not thankful for the bad thing, but through the bad thing. I told them we could be thankful about ALL things. We might have to look harder sometimes but the reason to give thanks to God is there somewhere.
Opening my eyes every morning I thank the Lord that my Honey and I woke up alive and have a new day to share. Walking to the kitchen to make the coffee, I give thanks that I have a hard working husband with a job that supports our family and the home in which we live. I am thankful for the coffee that I enjoy so much, for the man that grew the plants that made the coffee beans in the first place. I am thankful for his harvest that puts coffee beans in my grocery store; it not only provides me with my coffee but it provides an income for his family and he is able to buy food and clothes for his kids. I am thankful we live in a country where commercial enterprise is open to trade with other countries so we can buy his coffee beans and have our choice of supermarkets from which to choose. I am thankful for the car we have to drive to the store……. It can go on and on if we only stop long enough to look for all the reasons we have to be thankful. It also illustrated how people are all connected one way or another; the coffee grower and I are both thankful for his harvest! One of the kids came up with the comment, "It's the domino theory of thankfulness." Indeed, it is!
I give the kids an assignment every week to take with them as they go out in their worlds. Sometimes, they are to look for the ways they see God working in their lives. Maybe come back the next week to share an opportunity to stand for Jesus when others around them were not. That day, I told them to watch for everyday situations they discovered for which to be thankful. Thankfulness is a state of mind and heart more than a situational issue based on circumstance. Look around, reasons are everywhere you look!
As for me and my house, this day we choose to be thankful.
No comments:
Post a Comment