{"id":35041,"date":"2023-11-14T00:49:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T05:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inspireafire.com\/?p=35041"},"modified":"2023-11-11T21:52:45","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T02:52:45","slug":"simple-thanks-here-is-your-reminder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspireafire.com\/simple-thanks-here-is-your-reminder\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Thanks: Here is Your Reminder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Usually I wash, dry, and remake the bed all in the same day. Only occasionally do I pull spare sheets from the closet to rotate them. This means that when a sock gets caught in the fold of the fitted sheet, it could be months before it is rediscovered. Usually by then its mate has hopped off to parts unknown, but occasionally a gleeful reunion ensues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a certain sense of satisfaction to a sock drawer of matched sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before I am often thankful for warm fuzzy socks<\/a>, but I don\u2019t usually pay much attention to the pairing. Until laundry day and one has gone missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we don\u2019t get the joy of reunion without the loneliness of disunion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple Thanks From the Dustbowl<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I recently read Kristen Hannah\u2019s The Four Winds<\/em><\/a>. The story follows a family through the dust bowl of the Texas panhandle and their struggle for survival among the millions who clawed their way westward. At one point the lead character notes she would never again take for granted\u2026 a floor.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"simple<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Many scenes in this book arrested me in their description and continue to haunt me weeks after, but this comment settles about me like a shroud. So many things could have filled in that what-not-to-take-for-granted space. Clean water, healthy food, warm clothes, medical care\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How often do I thank God for my floor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need reminders to be thankful for the simple \u2013 and not so simple \u2013 blessings. Like those decks of exercise cards you can deal out to create a unique routine each day. Today it may be squats, crunches, lunges. Tomorrow: crunches, squats, jump rope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need to deal out socks, laundry, floor. Heat, water, stove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for the Thorns?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the things we have to be thankful for are often connected to things that we are not. (Laundry doesn\u2019t clean itself.) Juxtaposition of hardship and blessing can bring into sharp relief the thankfulness we have neglected. But, if we aren\u2019t careful, that juxtaposition can cause us to focus on the wrong thing entirely. As the old saying goes: I can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where we focus our attention matters.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"roses\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Further, we sometimes only reach a point of deep thankfulness by going through a season of loss. I think of Caleb in Joshua 14 laying claim to his portion of the promised land, 45 years late. How much rejoicing there was that day! How much deeper their appreciation must have been to finally arrive home after living as nomads in a strange land for 40+ years. I bet they, too, never took for granted the floor of their own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focus on Thanksgiving<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yet there is another twist to this story. Caleb should have been allowed to enter the promised land decades before, when God turned the Israelites back for their lack of faith. Caleb and Joshua alone lived through the entire exodus while all their comrades died in the desert. Caleb could have become embittered at the long delay, frustrated by his comrades that led to their wilderness years, defeated by the thoughts that must have come \u201cWe\u2019re never going to get out of this desert place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet all those years later, he boasted to Joshua, \u201cI\u2019m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This did not happen by chance. Proverbs 15:13 tells us what we already know from personal experience: heartache crushes the spirit. The fact that Caleb is as vigorous on the brink of his homeland as he was 45 years earlier tells us that his spirit was not defeated. He was still focused on God\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generations later the Apostle Paul explained how someone \u2013 Caleb, us \u2013 can live with such focused peace. \u201cRejoice in the Lord always,\u201d he said (Philippians 4:4). Pray and petition with thanksgiving<\/em>, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Reminder Today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wherever we are \u2013 picking through dirty laundry or rejoicing over a found sock \u2013 we can cling to God\u2019s promise to never leave us or forsake us. Like Caleb wandering in the wilderness, like the gardener pruning back thorns, we can find something to be thankful for now<\/a>. We can cling to the hope of the roses yet to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go ahead. Shuffle your blessings and deal a set for today. Remember what to be thankful for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Janet Beagle, Ph.D. serves as director of graduate programs for Purdue University\u2019s College of Engineering and is a writer, a Bible study teacher, and a student of God\u2019s Word. In her spare time, she likes to eat other people\u2019s cooking and hike with her two- and four-footed friends. Read more of Janet\u2019s Christian reflections at www.mustardpatch.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Janet Beagle<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

More Posts<\/a> – Website<\/a> – Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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