Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!  No, Elliot is still not here yet.

What are you thankful for this year?  Are you thankful for the good stuff and the bad stuff?  Or just the good stuff?



We've been talking a lot about having grateful hearts.  About being grateful for the hard things in your life - the things that make you turn to God and ask, "what are you doing?"



It's convicting for me to remind Jack that he needs to have a grateful attitude about all the food he's given, not just the food that he likes.  It reminds me of that same need for me--to be grateful for all God has given me, not just the "stuff I like" in life.



It is such a foreign concept to be grateful for the stuff in life that you don't like.  It goes against every natural instinct.



In that sense, to be grateful for what you wouldn't choose for yourself is unnatural - or maybe it's supernatural.  A miracle.  I think when you are grateful for the stuff you don't like - that's a miracle.



That is something God has been teaching me this year.  Through Jack.



He is such a creative teacher.  He finds ways to get at things in my heart that aren't accessible by intellectual conversation alone.



I am thankful for quiet moments of reflection and for the soft, still voice that teaches and gently convicts and is my friend.



And I am thankful for Daniel, my co-parent and companion.  And for many, many other people and things.  I hope you find yourself overwhelmed by gratitude this Thanksgiving.  I hope that for me, too.