Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done.
When was the last time you sat down and really though about how much God has blessed you? Here we are, less than a week before Thanksgiving, so the thoughts should not be completely foreign to you. But have you? Really? Sometimes God has to almost dump the blessing in our lap, literally, before we see it and think to praise the One from whom it came! On Wednesday, my brave watchdogs let me know that something was amiss: we had a person walking down our road. So I walked out to see what he wanted. He was with the utility company - trimming trees away from the power lines. I visited with him for a while. Then he asked if we'd like any of the mulch when they finish the trimming and shredding. I was delighted! We've wanted to try mulching the garden with wood chips rather than with grass ever since we watched the DVD Back to Eden. Later on in the day, the same worker let us know that they'd leave an old dead tree for us, if we wanted it. Ron had been looking at that tree, wondering how to get it down without a) killing himself, and b) taking out the power lines. All of us took the pickup up there later in the day and got an entire load before dark. Then Thursday we went back and cleaned up the rest of it. That's probably a good week to two weeks of good, dry elm! Elm, in case you don't know, has the highest BTU. It's a great wood to burn, if you don't have to split it. As Ron and I marveled over the events of the day, we counted our blessings! 1) wood; 2) Ron didn't have to cut down that dangerous tree; 3) all of the trees are trimmed away from our lines again; 4) a huge pile of mulch and 5) a promise of more mulch and more wood. Maybe that seems like a silly thing to you, but I'm counting it all as God's provision.
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Christopher doesn’t like math. It’s time-consuming. He doesn’t particularly like numbers; they’re not nearly as interesting as, say, Venus Fly-Traps and Bettas. He’d just as soon do chores for a couple of hours than have to do math. So imagine my surprise when he worked the following math problem:
Jason lives 1 7/8 miles from church. Last Sunday he walked 2/3 of the way before his Uncle Phillip picked him up. How far did Jason walk? Christopher’s answer: 97,200 inches!! Well! The problem didn’t specify what unit of measurement they wanted the answer in. The fun thing is that Christopher’s answer is right. And his delight at giving me more to do in figuring out that it was right was worth, to him, the effort it required to get that answer! I thought it was particularly fitting that I’d been contemplating writing an article about gratitude at the time when Christopher’s math needed to be checked today. You see, I could have sighed with frustration at a task made intentionally more difficult. I could have just told him he can’t answer the question that way; I could have made him rework it. That would have gone over like a lead balloon! I could have completely ignored the effort it took, the comprehension it demonstrated, and the accuracy he displayed in getting the correct answer. But I was, instead, grateful. I’m so grateful that I have a child who thinks outside the box. I’m glad he has that ornery streak which is tempered with the gentlest of hearts. I’m so grateful that I was able to call Grandma and Grandpa and brighten their day with his stunt. It was good to hear them laughing in delight. Crazy kid! But the whole situation illustrated a principle: you have a choice in life. You can become frustrated at the unexpected tasks which just got more difficult. Or you can thank God for the privilege of doing them to His glory. I couldn’t help singing, “Give Thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One.” As you might guess, I tend to think in songs. (It’s fun to try to have an entire conversation taken from song lyrics.) So you won’t be surprised to know that “Give Thanks” gave way to “Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise Him all creatures here below.” The thought of creatures lead my thoughts to our temporary job of feeding 21 alpacas, 3 llamas, 4 goats, 3 dogs, rats, 1 bunny, 4 horses, and a myriad of chickens this week. We, as a family, have been so grateful to God that we could do something to help our friends in the midst of their tragic accident this week. After Jonique’s horse riding accident which left her with a broken vertebrae, we all just wanted to help. It’s a small thing to us - being able to relieve their concern for the care of their animals. Our biggest concern is that Jonique heals and is able to walk again. That’s where our overwhelming gratitude to God comes: in talking with the doctors, it is very apparent that it’s a miracle that Jonique is not paralyzed from the waist down. I’ve been so aware this week of God’s healing touch in her life, and simultaneously reminded of the many instances in my own life where God was working things out. I’m so grateful for my awesome, merciful, loving, righteous God! “When in our music God is glorified and adoration leaves no room for pride . . .” I love singing the praise and thanksgiving and gratitude songs to God. Not only am I giving the glory to the One to whom it is due, I’m reminding myself that I’m not so much. My adoration of God works to humble me, and I soberly tell myself, “What is man that you are mindful of him?” How absolutely amazing that the King of Glory would care about me! “Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth, would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?” But He does. I can see it in the rainbow of flower hues, in the plethora of delectable tastes, in the myriad of pleasant aromas, and in the changing of the seasons. He gave us pleasurable things because He loves us. Everything could have been made black and white, tasting like sawdust, smelling like dirty socks, and erupting with a raucous and unbearable din. But it isn’t. As we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing on our Thanksgiving meals this year, my prayer for your family, and my family, is that we will have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the mind to discern God’s goodness to us every day - and that we all will respond with grateful hearts. |
AuthorCynthia Saladin is a homeschooling mom of three, with a passion for teaching them about God and having a personal relationship with him. Archives
November 2023
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