Give thanks in all circumstances.

“Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  I Thess. 5:16-18

In college I learned (or thought I learned) the lesson of giving thanks for all things.  Not just good things, not just things I like, not just blessings, not just pleasant things, but ALL things.  Catherine Marshall's book, Something More, was essential to my ‘education’ as was Corrie Ten Boom, especially her story of being thankful even for the fleas in the barracks that made their lives miserable.

College was 25 years ago, yet I sit today struggling with being thankful for children picking on each other, family Bible lessons imploding and ending with a child in tears, days gone haywire, lessons forgotten or misplaced.  If I can’t manage being thankful for irritations or inconveniences, what in the world would I do with true trials and tribulations?

I am tempted when giving thanks for hard things to qualify.  “Thank you, Lord, for my 6 weeks of itching because it has caused me to cry out to you in a new way.”  That may be true and that may be part of the blessing, but giving thanks in that manner is limiting because I cannot always see the blessing at the time.  I cannot always see God’s goodness in the moment, yet I am called to give thanks anyway.

In America, we highlight and promote giving thanks in the month of November.  We remind each other to look for the blessings around us, the blessings we tend to take for granted.  I’m going to try to stretch myself and express thanks to God for the things I normally would beg and plead for Him to fix.  I will still ask for help, healing and hope.  But I will thank Him first.

Thank you, Lord, that my husband is working in San Antonio and we are living in Dallas. 

Thank you, Lord, for marital miscommunication that makes me cry.

Thank you, Lord, for the failure and heartache in my children’s lives that I can’t fix.

Thank you, Lord, for unexplained itching, thyroid dysfunction and panic attacks.

If God is good, He is good all the time.  If I really believe,  I will give thanks for ALL things, ALL the time.

PS  Throughout this year I have been challenged and encouraged on the subject of gratitude by

Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts  Sometimes the most simple things are the most profound.

Haven

Most mornings I read morning prayer from a website posting the Divine Hours, a version of fixed hour prayer.  I'm not a morning person, so this enables me to pray when I have no words of my own.  I don't know what version of scripture they use, but almost daily one line jumps out at me.  A couple of weeks ago, what struck me was Psalm 18:1  "O Lord, my stronghold, my crag, my haven."

I have looked up many versions (praise God for online Bibles!) and can't find one that uses the word haven.  I'm not even sure which word is translated haven.  Using different versions and Strong's Concordance, I tried to paint a picture for myself: my place of safety, the high crag where I run for dear life, hiding behind the boulders, my rock in whom I take refuge, my high tower, place of defense, inaccessible place.

This year promises to be challenging.  Living in two different cities is not conducive to family life!  Three weeks out of the month I will be juggling home, school, children and all the responsibilities those require with Vince popping in most weekends.  God uses all things, however inconsequential, to remind of himself and his purposes.  I just don't think it's an accident that Vince currently lives in an apartment complex called "The Haven."

What is a haven?  A place of hiding, safety, retreat, protection.  One week a month I will retreat to our 'haven.'  I will have limited responsibilities (schooling Joel and Anna, cleaning a two bedroom apartment and fixing meals).  Vince will come home to us each evening.

In the midst of a hectic year, more hectic than most, God has provided a haven.  A place for rest, a place to hide from sometimes overwhelming responsibilities, an escape, a place of safety.  When I miss my husband, when I question why we are spending so much time apart, when I'm weary from driving over 200 miles, I pray that as my headlights light up the words, "The Haven," signaling the end of the journey I will give thanks to God for providing us a haven when I most need it.