Thankful In Everything

“Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name”

Matt Redman - Blessed Be Your Name

I woke up this morning with this song in my head.  And I find it very appropriate.  For the past week I’ve been reading blogs about thankfulness, lists on twitter and facebook of things people are thankful for, and to be honest it all seemed a little mundane.  The same thing every year.  I’m thankful for my family, my home, my security, my salvation, my car, my food, my friends.  I am grateful for all those things, but I was also bored.  It bores me to make a list like that.  I’m thankful for those things all year long.  Doesn’t God have something new for me this Thanksgiving? 

Then I got an email from a Pastor friend of mine.  She was having surgery and we were organizing to bring her meals while she recovered.  In the email she said “Thank you so much to all of you who have graciously volunteered to bring me and my family meals.  I didn’t want to be another item on ya’ll’s busy holiday to-do list, but no one seemed to listen to me!  I really appreciate your incredible generosity.”

I thought about it.  Yes, it could be just another thing on my to do list, but for me it was a blessing.  Seriously.  I had been struggling lately to decide what to make for dinners in my house.  It was a relief for me when the day came I had signed up to bring her family dinner.  I knew I was going to make chicken soup.  I didn’t have to stress or think about it. 

I had to go grocery shopping, but we’d been without tortillas for the past couple of days cause I hadn’t wanted to drag the kids to the store.  Seriously, my husband is Mexican and we had no tortillas in the house.  That’s probably why I was struggling so much trying to decide what to cook, no tortillas.  So when on many days I would have complained that I had to go grocery shopping that day I decided to be thankful that I would have tortillas! 

That made me think about the verse in Romans that says that all things work together for our good.  Which ties in the song.  Knowing that God will work things for our good we can praise him and be thankful even for the struggles and difficult times in our lives.  So here’s a little sample of what I’m thankful for this year.

•  That Caleb woke me up early while everyone else in the house was still asleep. It's giving me a chance to write and spend some much needed time with God this morning :)

• That I don’t have to decide what to cook today.

• For the piles of laundry in my house.  It means I have three active little boys and a husband who works.  That’s how the clothes get dirty after all.

• For the dirty dishes.  Because that means we had food to put on them and that that food is now in our tummies

What can you add to your list that you may not have been counting as a blessing?

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28