Thanksgiving

Being Thankful creates abundance, being thankful precedes the miracle....these are words written from one of my most revered upcoming authors Ann Voskamp. 

Hard words worked out in one life, living in a very real physical body,  the toil of caring for the needs of children a husband and a home. Thanksgiving worked out in an environment of hard realities. 

 Somewhere between childhood and womanhood there was this misunderstanding with many of us, that the easy would come, the favor would come, life would be gently handed to us on a sparkling platter and then we would be thankful....that somehow we would not know the meaning of sorrow or disappointment. But then:
the easy did not come,
the favor was taken or lost
the sorrows came,
death visited our doors just like everyone else...
years of waiting for that person, that love or that thing that would magically take us to the new life of being thankful did not come. Illness came knocking and addictions
, and void and broken relationships....it all came.....
sometimes we could see a glimpse of light here and there where joy would rise to the surface but it was short lived and we forgot to sing.
We forgot to sing....anyway....when all the terrible winds shook us to the core and the storms raged we forgot to sing and be thankful.... 

Sometimes the storms take our voice. Sometimes it seems they will take the very heart out of us ....our screams our cries for mercy cannot be heard carried off by a violent wind. We are helpless. It all comes back around to this truth...we are helpless and totally dependent on the one who created us. It is on the   threshing floor that thankfulness is birthed. Humility comes to us on the threshing floor. The days that appear to be full of not enough's brings forth desperation of the spirit....I think that is why Jesus said blessed are those that are poor in spirit...for theirs is the kingdom of heaven....we are desperate for the filling...desperate for the Kingdom alive in us..

I have been changed  by learning to reverse the faulty belief system I had from childhood....thanksgiving coming when there are storms...thankful heart for every glimpse of light I see....until that light fills the room around me and fills that space in me and spills onto everyone I touch. The life truly does know abundance when our eyes are open our hearts expectant of miracles instead of the other shoe falling.
I am changed and I am being changed. The hard things still come but something imprisoned for a life time has been allowed to walk into the warmth of God's truth....the welcoming heart and spirit griping truth that a heart of thanksgiving changes everything....Everything.....