Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
15 Then call on me when you are in trouble,
and I will rescue you,
and you will give me glory. Psalm 50:14 NLT
As a family we sit in a very different place than this time last year. And the year before that. With my husband back in a stable work environment and my cancer in the rear view mirror, we have many reasons to praise and thank God. Actually, the truth is that God deserves our thanks ALWAYS, but in my faithlessness, I forget.
If you have followed this blog for longer than a minute (thank you!), then you know my recent history of doubting God’s kindness and goodness while in the throes of painful experiences. It actually took the funeral of a two year old boy to wake me up to my own stubborn ungratefulness. The precious parents of this boy asked for the mourners at his service to sing the song “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin. Two week prior the praise band at church lead us in this very song and I refused to sing. In my heart, I didn’t feel it. And yet these missionaries (once over seas, but on this day to me) knew that our Father God is always good. They sang of this goodness with empty arms and broken hearts. And I realized I could too.
That’s what Psalm 50:14 is all about. We bring glory to God when we praise Him for His provision, even as we wonder how the bills will get paid. We bring Him glory when we thank Him for family, even with strained relationships in the picture. We honor Him when we thank Him for a life even after that life passes on. We show the world His tender mercies when we thank Him for his comfort in the midst of hard times. And we showcase His majesty when we accept His gift of Jesus with a beholden spirit.
As young parents, we started a new tradition to help us and the kids remember all God does for us (and emphasize the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday) by putting up a thankfulness tree. For many years we adorned our artificial tree with construction paper leaves and turkeys with handwritten Bible verses about giving thanks. We also wrote on them the names of the people and things for which we were most grateful. This year with my bonus son out of the house (and married with kids of his own) and both daughters firmly in their teen years, the construction paper didn’t seem quite as charming. So we decided to let our tree grow up and bought a few ornaments instead. Acorns, leaves, pumpkins and footballs now hang on the branches. But even though we changed the tree, I wasn’t ready to give up our family gratitude practice.
We now have a tabletop card holder in the middle of our kitchen table with a sharpie and blank leaves and turkeys and pumpkins. Every time we sit down to dinner as a family, we add something we are thankful for. Some days it’s easy to give thanks, and sometimes it’s a sacrifice to set aside our feelings and look at who God is. Who He has always been, through good times and bad. Because the truth beyond our circumstances is that He is good. And it’s always for our sanctification to acknowledge it.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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God is a good, good Father, all the time, even when we fail to acknowledge Him and all the blessings He has bestowed upon us. May we grow in thankfulness each and every day.
Blessings, Lauren!
Amen, Martha.
Hi Lauren. What a powerful story! I remember a time I, too, refused to join in praise songs at church. I felt disingenuous and was angry with God for a particular situation. I’m grateful He is patient with me.
What a testimony this young couple is to those around them. I pray their hearts will be comforted despite their grief this season.
Many blessings,
Tammy
It is very kind of you to pray for them, Tammy. They are nearing the anniversary of the little guy’s passing and it will be tough.
This is a great reminder to be grateful and give God glory even when we don’t feel like it. God bless you. He is good all of the time!
God bless you, Amy. He is good all the time.
Lauren, what a powerful message. Sometimes it does take tragedy and immense grief in order to remind us of these things. I love the idea of a gratitude tree and I think I may very well implement this into our holiday celebrations. Thanks for sharing and linking up. Wishing you a very blessed Thanksgiving.
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
I think your family would get a lot out of the gratitude tree!
Sometimes it is good to be thankful for what we have X #dreamteam
Absolutely!
I think it’s great when young families start new traditions aside from the ones they grew up with. My son and wife buy the whole family matching pj for Christmas, we never did that.
We do a thankful time at Christmas instead of Thanksgiving. Each year we learn something new about our adult children and grandchildren. We not only tell a good thing but also something that was hard that past year and how we made it through it. Hard things bring out more from deep inside then the good things we are grateful. Just the telling of it brings a different perspective we could not see before. Lovely post.
I love your tradition of telling the hard things too. So great to see God’s faithfulness in those. Thank you, Betty.
This post really resonates with me and I’m so glad you shared it at #PorchStories. xo
Thanks, Kristin. Love to link up with you.
I love the idea of writing down something you are thankful for each meal time. Thanks for joining us on the #DreamTeam
It has been very meaningful. Thanks, Kirsty.
Lauren, thank you for this precious reminder. I am much like you. This morning, as the chaos of three little ones unfolds around me and “interrupts” the other things I had hoped to do, I am following your wisdom and pausing to give thanks for the chaos and the gift of it all. Bless you for this!
Thanks, Stacey!