Two weeks ago, I was happily anticipating a "normal" week at home after our busy Anniversary weekend celebration at church. I was excited about dear friends who were coming for a long-awaited weekend visit. I was also looking forward to hosting a cook-out fellowship in our home that same weekend, followed by a visit from my sister from Georgia who had not been here in two years.
Then I got sick.
Not just a little sick. No, for some reason when I get sick (which is not that often), I get REALLY sick. This time, I had bronchitis and the flu at the same time. I paid a visit to my doctor right away who confirmed I had bronchitis and started me on some prescriptions with orders to rest in bed. After a few days of getting worse instead of better, it was determined that I indeed had the flu on top of bronchitis. My fever kept going up and I could hardly get out of bed. As if this wasn't enough misery, I have an auto-immune condition that causes me to get a bad rash whenever I get sick. It was more like a bad sunburn than a rash, and it extended from my head to my feet. Did I say I was miserable?
So you know what happened to all my plans as a result of this. My planned nice week of productivity went out the window. We had to call our friends and cancel their visit. I cried. We canceled the cookout fellowship. And because my sister has CF and no immune system to speak of, we had to put her visit on hold as well. We had some unexpected difficulties come up at church and at home which made me feel even worse. More tears.
During this time, as I lay in bed feeling awful, I realized something. I could cry and complain and be distressed and depressed. Or I could choose to be grateful...to find things to be thankful for even in the midst of all this. As Nancy Leigh DeMoss says, we can whine, or we can worship. So often we relegate being thankful to the month of November. Or we thank God for the "big" things like our home, our family, our church, our health, and our freedom.
I think God wants us to be much more intentional about being grateful, and to learn to be thankful for every little thing. After all, everything we have is because of His grace and mercy. We deserve nothing and without His grace we would have nothing.
I was thankful that I don't have an outside job right now and that I could stay home and recuperate without being stressed about missing work. I was thankful for a comfortable bed in which to sleep and rest, and for a bathtub with warm running water to make my rash feel better. Believe me, there are many places around the world where people do not enjoy these little things, and especially in the midst of the floods that were going on in South Carolina when I was sick, I was even more mindful of that. I was thankful for a good doctor who called me twice and for medicine and for insurance to help pay for the doctor and the medicines. I was thankful for hot tea and for homemade chicken soup that was brought by two sweet friends from church. I was thankful for a husband who cared for me and who didn't complain about eating soup for practically a whole week. And so it goes.
Yes, we missed our visit from our friends. I have to trust God's providence that this was not in His plan for either of us right now, and hopefully we can make it happen someday. I can be thankful for God's providence. I am thankful that He does have a plan for me and that plan is always for my good and my learning and ultimately for His glory.
My sister did get to come for a visit. In fact, she just left this morning. Our time together was shortened and so we had to adjust our plans and did not get to do some things we had wanted to do, but we still had a wonderful 5 days of shopping, laughing, talking, making a couple crafts, cooking together, and shop-browsing. I am thankful that God allowed us this time together and that even this abbreviated time was under His sovereign provision.
The theme of thanksgiving runs throughout the book of Colossians. In Col. 1:3, and again in verse 12, we are instructed to be thankful in our praying. In 2:7, we are to be "abounding in thanksgiving." Abounding means overflowing. And in chapter 3, it is mentioned two more times - verse 15. ..."and be ye thankful" and verse 17: "and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." Chapter 4, verse 2 - "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving."
We do not always feel like being thankful. We are so prone to have a spirit of ingratitude. But God wants us to be thankful, for every little thing. To get started, you might want to do what I did a few years ago and make it a habit to write down 5 things you are grateful for every day. They can be things as little as a hot cup of coffee, a folded pile of laundry. Trust me, when you get into the habit of cultivating a thankful attitude, it will change you.
Until next time,
Kathi
No comments:
Post a Comment