Thankfulness...

For the first time in my life, I crave silence.  Maybe it is the outpouring of joy that I received from my summer sitting before the Lord.  The crazy lady who could never stop moving now craves quiet time with God like she craves air.  Transformation, for sure....

So it is Thanksgiving Day.  The sweet potato casserole (pecan topping, no marshmallows) is ready to go in the oven, along with Miss Daisy's Garlic Cheese Grits, a Thanksgiving staple in the Miller House.  And I have slipped away upstairs for a little time alone...

I want to enter this day with the right heart...pouring out humble thanks for the faithfulness and glory of God.  I want to raise children that approach their Creator with equal parts awe and gratitude.  So at our house, we have spent this month focused on thankfulness.

There have been over 20 days of Facebook statuses proclaiming our gratitude.  Then at dinner each night, we read scripture and record something we are thankful for on leaves that decorate our thankful tree (thanks, Ann Voskamp). All of these actions are part of a deliberate effort to create a culture of gratitude in our home.

But after a month of talking with my children, my students and my Facebook friends, it has occurred to me that most of the things for which we are thankful are fleeting.  So in these quiet moments alone, I am searching my heart for something deeper.  What are the things for which I am so thankful that I am not willing to lose them?  I have thought a lot lately about what I am willing to give up for the sake of Christ.  This quote keeps coming to mind:

"No man is a fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."- Jim Eliot

So today, I am thankful for a God who never gives up on me... I am thankful for the thousand ways that He daily draws me closer to Him and the salvation He gave me that I will never deserve. I am thankful for Him who draws me to seek the truth in His Word and never allows me to be satisfied with a half-hearted pursuit of His glory. And I am thankful that He has ruined me for this world.

"How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates.  I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, then I can enter the gates to glory.  Living in His presence is fullness of joy--and seeing shows the way in." 

 - Ann Voskamp