Here in the USA, we just celebrated Thanksgiving, a day set aside to be thankful for all the people in our lives, the roof over our head, food in our belly and clothes on our backs.
As Christians, we are supposed to be thankful every day. This can be difficult to do when circumstances cause pain and stress in our lives, and steal our sense of peace.
I received a flyer in the snail mail today, reminding me:
“In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
–1 Thessalonians 5:18
Right now, there is a specific situation in my life, where one person’s lie and selfishness is stopping something from happening. My first response, of course, was anger.(I wanted to scream and yell, and tell her she’s wrong, etc.) But I had to stop and think. People are put into our lives for a reason. So I prayed for her and asked God to bless her. This gets me out from under the stress, and puts it into God’s hands. He can choose to open her eyes, have a change of heart, or just move her out of the way. It’s really none of my business how it turns out. I have to trust God.
I feel that this situation is a test, and as we know, when we fail a test we have to take it over. I don’t want to take this one over! Besides I have already failed this test a million times with other situations. For example, when a guy pulls out in front of me in traffic, and I’m already running late, how do I know that God didn’t put him there to prevent an accident up the street? I can call him an idiot, and yell, but what good does that do? We only see in part. We don’t see the big picture.
So I have to give thanks that this person is in the way, and something GOOD did already come out of it (because of this situation we met a really great person).
I realize I am being a little cryptic today, but I really can’t share exact details at this time.
I am just reminding myself to be thankful no matter what it looks like.
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As you know, we had to move out of our house for two weeks due to mold issues. If this had not happened, I would not have been at a certain restaurant at a certain time, and I would not have run into my old boss from 25 years ago! I would not have had the opportunity to have the shag rug changed into hard wood in the hallway, and I would not have freshly painted rooms and ceilings.
I guess today’s blog is more for me to process all this information, but I hope that it helps someone else too.
SueAnn Porter 