Learning Thanks

Romans 1:20-21

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God head, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." (NKJV, emphasis added)

How do we "learn thanks"? I believe, like with any other thing we are trying to learn, we learn by practice. We have to daily (hourly, every minute) practice thanks. I've just started to study the idea of being thankful for everything (and I mean EVERYTHING). I want to be deliberate in my thanks to God. I want in no way to be flippant about it. Never routine. My longing is for my thanks to God to be genuine and true....thought about. I don't want to just sit down to my meal, in a hurry,  and spout out the same old..."Dear Lord thank You for this food, please bless it and nourish our bodies and our bodies to Your service amen." I want to say... "Thank You Lord, for the blessing before me. The blessing of this food (not everyone is fortunate enough to have food to eat). Thank You Lord, for the job that provided the money to buy this food, for the ability of each member of my family to feed themselves this precious food (for some, meals come from a tube). Thank You for the hands that tilled and planted and nurtured these crops so that they could make their way to my table."

My goal is to study through all the "thankful" verses in the bible. I found this one in Romans today. It gave me a new perspective on being thankful and naming my thanks. I've always known that giving thanks to God was what we were "supposed" to do. But God has revealed to me that it goes so much deeper than that. Giving thanks is equal to communion with God. It's intimate time with Him. Time that produces fruit. The fruit of joy, fruit of walking closer with God.

Lord, I pray that you will keep "thanks" in the forefront of my mind. I pray that I will heed Paul's words in Romans...learn from them. I want to Glorify You, be thankful to You, and clearly see You in everything so that my heart will never be darkened.

Thankful....

96. That learning (at school) comes easy for my girls.
97. for my Wednesday morning prayer group.
98. God's creatures (even the family of lizards living in our barn, that scare me on a daily basis...you'd think after months of seeing them, I'd know they were there and expect to see them....nope they get me everyday!)
99. for a doctor that knows my name and the names of all three of my girls(and their activities) without having to look at the history on my chart.
100. for Sunday School Fish Fry's.
101. for pens and paper.
102. gifts for no reason.
103. for being in on surprise parties!


If you haven't already, I urge you to pick of a copy of Ann Voskamp's book "One Thousand Gifts". You can read her blog at www.aholyexperience.com


God Bless,

Tracey
<><