Nineteen and Twenty

You'd think I would manage to post a thankful post on Thanksgiving...but then again wasn't the point of this to help me cultivate a spirit of thankfulness.  So then shouldn't I be striving to be thankful all year long? Shouldn't thankfulness be more than something I dwell upon on the 4th Thursday on November?

With that in mind I must confess how discontent I have allowed myself to become with my life.  I have become envious of what others have and so often I find myself daydreaming and thinking about how I wish my life was different than it currently is.  I play the "What If" game quite a bit.  I have fallen for the lie that the grass is greener on the other side.  God has blessed me beyond words.  And yet I constantly find myself longing for more than I have been given when in fact I've been given so much.  Too much.  Far more than I deserve.

I recently heard a quote from a book called Calm My Anxious Heart where the author spoke of missionary living in a small, primitive hunt in Africa and how this woman truly live the words of Paul in Philippians 4:11, "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."  The missionary shared her secret of content...

1. Never allow yourself to complain about anything, not even the weather.
2. Never picture yourself in any other circumstance or some place else.
3. Never compare your lot with another's.
4. Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
5. Never dwell on tomorrow - remember it is God and not ours.  

These five secrets are the challenge I want to pursue in the coming days, weeks, months, and year. I want to live a life of contentment and I know that this is not something to be put off until tomorrow.  It must start today.  

To create and cultivate a spirit of contentment I want to continue to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving.  I want to begin each day and end each day thanking the Lord for both the challenges and blessings in my life.  For challenges as I am beginning to learn are blessings often in disguise.  As Joseph proclaimed to brothers after finally being reunited with the ones who sold him into slavery, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done..." (Genesis 50:20).  

So with all that being said I now embark on a new project (okay so it's more like a continuation of the one I've already started).  I have decided I'm not going to stop the "Thankful For" posts...but rather continued them for the next year.  365 Days of Thanksgiving.  365 Days of seeing how God is at work.  365 Days of learning contentment with what I've been giving.  365 Days of realizing the blessings in my life.  365 Thankful Fors...

To start where I left off. (And I'll try and keep these short haha)

Nineteen

1. All the food tasted fabulous (Long story short - my grandparents were in a car accident last week.  My grandma has a broken collar bone.  She's always done the WHOLE Thanksgiving meal.  But it was turned over to my mom, my aunt, and I.  And my mom said since I left her last weekend I was in charge haha...but everything was super tasty - especially the new sweet potato casserole recipe - my cousins who don't eat sweet potatoes had seconds :D)

2. Time with family - yes it can be stressful but in the end they always love you!

Twenty

The fact that we do Black Friday in Sebring.  When I was in high school I always wished we went somewhere more glamorous for the after-Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza, but now there is nowhere I'd rather be.  It's not stressful.  No one is fighting over items to buy.  There aren't really any lines.  Most things are sold out.  And we get to spend time together.  We always have a good laugh.  I love that simple is less stressful.  So I'm thankful for time with my mom and aunt in a place which wasn't crazy and insane.  It seemed slightly more in touch with what Christmas is truly about. 

"Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS.  I will say it again:  Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near."

Philippians 4:4-5