God has overwhelmed my heart with gratitude today. I think He wanted to remind me how much He does for us, and I feel like He's done so in spectacular fashion. No, there's not been an earth-shattering event to occur to bring this about, He has simply laid in on my heart to meditate.
It started last night, when I overheard one of my roomates mention the prayers of gratitude that she had her students pray. I thought a lot about that, and this morning I started our day off by talking about how much God provides for us and cares for us. I then prayed a 'thank you' to God for my students and for being so good to us. I then asked each child to thank Him for something they were grateful for. There's truly something beautiful in what a child finds worthy of thanks. Several of the short utterances were deeply profound, and all of them were sweetly beautiful. Aside: After the prayer, one of my boys was a little upset that we didn't pray for Mexico, who lost to Brussels last night. I told him we could pray for our prayer requests anytime we look over at them (we write them on a marker board every morning), and that God loves to hear from us all day long. =)
This afternoon I started listening to some music while I was checking email and facebook, and the song 'Gratitude' by Nichole Nordeman came on. Here was my meditation again. I sat and listened for a while. Things are good here, but how wonderful to be reminded that even when they don't seem to be -- they are, simply because God is good.
At about 9:00pm, I picked up my cell, and dialed my cousin Penny, whom I haven't talked to in quite some time. We caught up on the important stuff, like pilates and air conditioning noises, then she started telling me about things that are happening at my home church. My heart was so full! I cannot comprehend how our King can be so good to us. Services that used to be 8 are now 70, those that used to be 20 are now well over 100, and more importantly, people are coming to Christ. Young and old, people are following. New faces are committing to serve the Body, and there seems to be a total transformation in our fellowship. How can I keep from being grateful for such news? This is what our Christian life is all about.
Then I pulled open my Bible to read, and here's where I was:
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience ; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Col 3:12-17 (NASB)
There's a lot on this passage to meditate, to study, to commit to heart. I love though that Paul tells us, with each emphasis, to "be thankful". Yes, God, we have a whole lot to be grateful for indeed
-Holly
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