Gratitude

         But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9)

I tend to write these blogs a day ahead and more often than not, I don’t think about “tomorrow is ____” when I write. November seems to be a time when people become more focused on gratitude. I have friends who (like I) do Thankfulness Thursday things on social media, but even the folks who don’t do those tend to wax more verbally grateful during November because of Thanksgiving Day. It’s probably one of the best things on social media. So, two days late, I find as a verse of the day a great big cause for thanksgiving.

We –

          The forsaken

                   The forgotten

                             The abandoned

                                      The wayward

                                                The hopeless

                                                          The lost

                                                                   The lonely

                                                                             The abused

                                                                                      The sinful

          The imperfect

                   The failed or failing

                             The unready

                                      The foolish

                                                The untrustworthy

                                                          The unfaithful

                                                                   The fickle

                                                                             The failures

 

God’s special possession

                                                 A holy nation

                             A royal priesthood

A chosen people

We are –

 

It’s hard to get my mind around the big things. Being grateful for things that aren’t within us, like butterflies that have just emerged from their chrysalises, or beautiful sunrises/sunsets. It’s spontaneous and takes the few seconds while we take a picture and release the flying flower to its short life. In a way, it’s impersonal.

But sometimes, the thing for which we’re grateful is a little bigger and/or a little more personal. Being thankful for a pretty sunrise for ten seconds might be sufficient but how does one be adequately thankful for being chosen? For the meaning and purpose found in being part of a royal priesthood? For the honor of being part of a holy nation? For the unimaginable privilege of being God’s special possession?

The only real answer is to throw our crowns and our selves at His feet, to live in eternal gratitude, to love Him as He has loved us, and to do all manner of big things in gratitude for these big things. But what does that mean? What does it look like on a minute-by-minute basis? What happens when  you know you should be grateful, you want to be grateful, but trying to work up gratitude feels like trying to start a fire with six cotton balls in a glass of water.

One answer is to practice on smaller stuff. Look for opportunities to build up your gratitude muscles and your gratitude habit. Come up with one or more things about which you are grateful each day for the rest of November. Be really daring and continue in December. Get creative. Write notes to people for or to whom you are grateful. Make a gratitude jar and everyone in the house put in a piece of paper with one thing each day or week and read them at Thanksgiving. Keep a gratitude journal. Make tomorrow “A” day, and find something that begins with A that you are grateful for. The day after that is “B” day, etc. Or pick something that is a hard blessing and spend some time thanking God for it – whether it’s an illness, or fleas (a la Corrie Ten Boom,) or a failure. Have fun with the idea, because if you have fun, you’re likely to keep doing it.