Thanks for Everything

Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father. —Ephesians 5:20

For a third-grade assignment, my son defined thankfulness as when “you don’t like something, like your dinner, and your dad says you should be thankful for it.”

As adults we’ve got much bigger things to swallow than an unwanted dinner, like unexplained losses, splintered relationships, battles with cancer.

In response to these things, I’m more tempted to gag and sputter, than say, “Thank You, Lord!” But am I really to be thankful for all things?

I couldn’t find any wiggle room in Paul’s exhortation in Ephesians. However, I don’t think he was suggesting we host cancer celebrations. He, himself, begged God to remove his “thorn in the flesh.” But when God refused, Paul said he was thankful. Why? Because his thorn kept him from becoming conceited (2 Cor. 12:7).

There’s nothing like a good thorn to puncture my ever-inflating self-sufficiency and remind me just how dependent on God I am. So, in the end my third grader was right. Thankfulness is appreciating even the things in life that you’d rather not have on your plate.

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 “Thanks for Everything” (ReviveOurHearts.com/blog)

Scripture taken from The CSB