Giving Thanks

Tomorrow we enter November: the month we focus on giving thanks.

I need that reminder this time of year, as the sun sleeps long and the days feel short. The cold keeps us locked in and bundled up and sometimes, with all the dark and grey here in Chicagoland, my heart feels the same. I struggle with that this time of year, and I need tangible reminders to stop and give thanks. 

I need reminders to see again, to see and find the grace of God everywhere, because it is everywhere. When I see His grace, when I discover the beauty in the ordinary and the awe in the mundane, when I see His gifts surrounding me, overflowing, the grey lifts and joy spills. 

I have learned and am learning to “give thanks in all circumstances,” rather than dwelling on disappointment. (1 Thess. 5:18)

I have learned and am learning to think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable … {those things that are} excellent or praiseworthy,” rather than comparing, complaining, fearing, or forgetting. (Phil. 4:8)

I have learned and am learning that eucharisteo, giving thanks, always precedes the miracle.

“Deep  chara joy is found only at the table of the euCHARisteo–the table of thanksgiving. I sit there long … wondering … is it that simple? Is the height of my chara joy dependent on the depths of my eucharisteo thanks?  As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning — now; wherever, meaning–here” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts).

I have learned and am learning that sometimes I have to count the gifts to see them well.

Whatever you are struggling with, be it disappointment, bitterness, loneliness, _______, may I encourage you to run to God? Ask Him to do a work in your heart and then “begin counting the gifts, counting all the ways He loves, counting a thousand more, never stopping.

“So that when you wake in the morning, you can’t help unfold your hands to the heavens, and though you grieve and though you wonder, though the world is ugly, it is beautiful — and though time moves on, and the planet spins, a blur, its moments are holy. And you can slow and you can wake and you can trust and you can find the joy you’re aching for by paying attention to all the moments with your whispered offering of thanks. Because this is how you begin to spend your one life well —

“Receiving each moment for what it really is: holy, ordinary, amazing grace. A gift” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts).

“Thanksgiving–giving thanks in everything–prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ. The act of sacrificing thank offerings to God–even for the bread and cup of cost, for cancer and crucifixion–this prepares the way for God to show us His fullest salvation from bitter, angry, resentful lives and from all sin that estranges us from Him. At the Eucharist, Christ breaks His heart to heal ours–” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts).

If you’re anything like me and need tangible, around-the-house reminders to give thanks and choose joy, check out DaySpring’s amazing line up of products that help us keep Scripture and other encouragement right in front of us. Or order your own Faithful Life Planner to keep the Lord at the center of every single one of your days.

I recently received a few products free from DaySpring in exchange for my story, not a review. Writing these words was easy for me because God truly has used Ann’s words over the course of the last two years to minister deeply to my soul and to encourage me to give thanks in all circumstances. When her book released in the fall of 2010, I needed to read those words, and God used that book to do a work in me.

A Dayspring perpetual calendar sits on my windowsill above the sink and encourages me daily, reminding me to give thanks in each moment — even when loading or unloading (!) the dishwasher.  I pray they will be a blessing to you, too.