The Choice.... to be Thankful

 

 

There is always, always something to be thankful for. And actually, there are many things all around us that are worthy of thanksgiving. Always. But if you can only think of one thing... thank God for that one thing and ask Him to show you more. :)

Today I am thankful to have been given the freedom to make choices, including the choice to be thankful. Being thankful is sometimes an occasional thing... but it is also one of those choices that can become a lifestyle if practiced enough. It is like a muscle that needs conditioning-- and just like training a muscle, it requires focus and persistence. But how to focus? Well, for instance, we can choose to focus on the dark clouds in the sky or we can find the light streaming through them or the sun tucked behind the temporary gloom. We can look people in the eye and seek out their souls, or we can focus on their perceived shortcomings. We can love what we see in our lives and in ourselves, or we can dread waking to a new day in our skin and circumstance. How we view life events and people truly is a choice. And whether we live a life of gratitude or fail to see the blessings is also a choice.

The choice to focus on thankfulness is also about more than just being optimistic... it's about recognizing the purpose in all things. It's about seeing glimpses of God's design, and recognizing the beauty in all of it. There is so much beauty in God's plan. In what He gave so that we can be with Him forever. When we choose to focus on that precious gift, we can come to love the whole picture of our lives and the people that we meet... no matter how fragmented some or even all of it may seem. We can come to appreciate both the dark clouds AND the sunshine. The happy times and the not-so-happy times. The times of triumph and the moments of failure. The abundance of health and the sickbed. Whole hearts and hurting hearts. Driving hard toward a purpose and then patiently waiting. It's all a part of His divine plan. They all work together toward something more wondrous than we could ever imagine when filtered through the gift of salvation.

And yet, so often we zoom in on only one or two pieces of our lives that alone, look ugly, or scary, or dreadful, or just plain unlikeable. We don't want those pieces in our lives and we become angry that they were ever introduced into our puzzle boxes to begin with. But God gave us the choice to wear faith as our lenses so that we can zoom out and gain a higher perspective of the work of God's Hands in our lives. Couple that with prayer and God's amazingly inspired Word, and suddenly it is hard to see any one piece for itself, let alone see any one piece as less than something extraordinary.

Through the faith lens... through the heart of salvation... all we can see is Divinity in its ever-glorious, continually mystifying splendor laying a golden path toward Heaven's gate, brick by golden brick.

And this is just so marvelous to me. It amazes me that somehow, God fit all of my little fragments into a much larger, eternal picture. And He has done the same for every single person and thing. I love serving a God of purpose... even when I can't possibly see the whole design just yet. I can see through the lens of faith that the design is beautiful in its fragments scattered about in my life... with God's Love as the glue that holds it all together.

<3