Give Thanks for What?

The slugs are eating my garden.  I left my phone at home. The dishes are piled up in both sinks.   They are facts in my life.   They discourage me.    I just look at life and it all says pain, struggle, work.     I do not look at my tasks, my mistakes, my mess with joy, just discontentment and I realise my attitude is wrong. 

Some people voice these complaints; a groan, a growl, a scream at someone else for not sharing the weight, a long list of expletives.   The yoke rubs the wrong way.  Do we not realise that we wear it wrong?

Usually they are just in my head, not voiced, just causing a frustrated simmer of resentment at my life.  They are still in my heart, piercing holes of discontent, the sharp of the nail tearing at any who come near, usually those I love most.  Puss leaks out, staining my day. 

How do I enjoy life?  Christ surely did not die for me to have this.   I search for a joy in places that are barren and in my searching miss each moment that ticks on.  

I have not learnt from the Words of the Book on my desk.   It lays open and I feel spiritual but have the words hammered out the nail and healed the sores?

‘Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits.’

I am saved, redeemed, child of God.

Thanks, but sometimes those things are far away in a misty sky in the early morn before life screams with interruptions of pain in an imperfect world.  

What is in our heart will come out of our mouth, a stream of pure water or a stream of murky confusion and complaint.   How does it change from one to another?

The Words are sinking in and I realise what I must do to change the stream, to wear the yoke right, to hammer out the nails of discontent.  I must encourage my soul, and so along with many others in I begin my list of ‘One Thousand Gifts’.   It is a dare to live fully right where I am. 

1.      Thank you that the slugs are only eating the bok choy.

2.      That I have a phone to lose

3.      That I have plenty of food to dirty dishes with

4.      For the beauty of an unfurling rose bud

As we start can our view help but change?  We can encourage ourselves and the water slowly purifies and as it flows a clear stream, it will encourage those around us.

This is a piece I wrote shortly after we were married in 2011, but it seems my soul needs to learn the exact same lesson again. 

References:   Psalm 103:2

‘One Thousand Gifts’ by Ann Voskamp.  This dare to live fully right where you are has quickly become a New York bestseller as God transforms a pig farmers wife from depressed to gladly blessed.  www.aholyexperience.com