Thankful For These Gifts
thankful:feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative
grateful: appreciative
Really is there a difference? Maybe not, maybe it’s the same word said differently, but even still…do you ever think “I’m so thankful I have this thing and this thing and this toy or this person?” In that, do you let your thoughts go a little further still to who you are thankful to for all of the things you have?
Yesterday I made my 3rd trip to the grocery store for items on my Thanksgiving cooking list and after finishing I was pretty merrily skipping out(no, really I was cuz it was only a $15 trip that time) of the store and kinda had one of those fast moving, punch in the gut reality check…a reality check that made the world stop for a second or two as I said, “Thank YOU God, that I live in a country where I can run to the grocery store where the aisles are filled with an abundance of food. Stores where I don’t wonder if what I want is even a possibilty, but more of a question of how I want it packaged and what size I need. Thank you God that I can swipe a card and money is transferred from my bank with ease to pay for the funds. Thank you God that I have a job that allows me to put money in the bank. Thank you God, that as a woman I have the freedom to go to the store as I please and I don’t have to wait for a man to take me. Thank You God, that I live in the US where I learned to drive when I was 16 and have the opportunity and ability to drive myself to any store I please. Thank you God that I have the opportunity to smile at grumpy people as I skip merrily along on because I can go home and spend the rest of my day with my babies.
I got in my car and had to call a friend and say…”I take so much for granted so often,but I want you to know that I am so thankful and have so much to be thankful for and here is just a part of it…I am Thankful for You.”
So right now, as I sit in a warm house in the early hours of morning, I am thankful for a dog that wakes me up at 6 so I can think through all the things I’m thankful for before the busy-ness of the day creeps in. I am Thankful to God for my children who are happy, healthy and well. For the time I have with them that is filled with such depth of emotion and range of feeling. For all the things they teach me. For all the things they share with me. For all the joy they bring me. I am thankful to my God who gave me these two most amazing gifts even if I feel like an undeserving person at times. Thank you God, for knowing my heart and knowing how much I would need them in my life.
I’m thankful for my all family members who show me such great love. I am loved and accepted and for that I am so grateful.
I’m thankful for friends who love me beyond the “call of friendship.” This year I have been shown such amazing love through my friends and I believe it was God’s way of showing me how much He cares for me and how His love is not contingent on what I have to offer. I am thankful for the people He’s put in my life who pray for me, and offer me wisdom and encouragement when I need it and sometimes when I think I don’t need it. People who stand by my side when I just need someone to lean on. People who have given me encouragement through words and actions. People who have seen me in my darkest moments and never moved from where they stood by me. Thank you God, for the people who are my support because of them, I can see now how much you love me and how much I must mean to you.
I am a thankful woman, a grateful woman today. Not just for each person or thing I have, but to God who has given me these wonderful gifts.
