thanksgiving study {day one}

today's the first day of the 2 week online Thanksgiving study through Good Morning Girls... i'm looking forward to doing this - i know it will help me keep perspective during this especially busy time of year and of life... i'm going to commit to involving the kids - especially si guy - with this one. they have a prayer journal for boys that i want him to keep as i keep mine...

Lord, help me to be faithful in this endeavor to train my kids in thankfulness... it takes a lot of intentionality to train these kids, and i only have a short time with them to build into their lives so proactively and effectively - to impress upon their impressionable minds and hearts - that they might understand the depth of Your love for them and develop a passion to serve You for You are our great and mighty God, worthy of all praise...

from today's post:

Looking at today’s verses 1 Chronicles 16:7-36, focus on the four elements of true thanksgiving to God which are:

• Remembering
• Telling
• Showing
• Offering

How can you incorporate these elements into your daily life?

Remembering - first and foremost, all that I have because of Christ's sacrifice. Believing in the Gospel has set me free from the wrath of God i deserve as a sinner and i have been credited with His righteousness. This should always be the foundation of my thankfulness... I have been given the ultimate gift from a perfectly holy and righteous God and i didn't do a thing to earn it or deserve it. Wow! Thanks be to God! And then, i should be looking back and remembering all the other great and marvelous things God has done in and through my life, blessings upon blessings, from the smallest to the great. I need to remember what He has brought me through - the trials and the dark valleys. Counting my blessings puts life into perspective. I start seeing all the good things the Lord has brought into my life and it fosters contentment for what I do have. i stop thinking about the complaints or discomforts (usually all selfish!) and start praising God for all the He has given me.

Telling - Ahh... don't just keep it to myself. Tell others about the goodness of God in my life. Give HIM the glory when I receive praise for something He has blessed me with or gifted me with. Always direct the attention back to Him. Tell my kids I thank God for them. Tell my husband I thank God for him... God's perfect gift to me. Tell of His wondrous works. God deserves all that glory and I shouldn't hide it. When I'm given the opportunity to share about how great He is, then I should take full advantage.

Showing - Show my thankfulness by serving others. If I am thankful for the gift of a husband - especially a wonderful and loving one - then I should not grumble when the Lord provides an opportunity to serve him. I have them all throughout the day! Pray for him, affirm him, cook for him, make his lunch, wash and iron (oh... IRON) his clothes, resist the temptation to take the day's frustrations out on him, give him time to decompress when he gets home, put myself aside to honor and serve him. Show thankfulness for my amazing children by serving them. I read this Elisabeth Elliot's devotional this morning about the men and women who are childless by God's will and that was great perspective in so many ways. I should not take them for granted. So, when they want my attention and I have to choose between what I'm doing that moment and what I can do to love and serve them, then I should choose what best glorifies God. If I'm in the middle of an email or some task and it can wait so I can give my child a moment or a few minutes of my undivided attention... or to get them a cup or prepare for them a snack, then i should. this life i live not to serve myself, but to serve others. and the Lord has put me in my home to serve my family. Show my thankfulness for the people and things i have by giving away myself - my time, my energy, my resources - to love and serve others as Christ did while He was here.

Offering - Offer the sacrifice praise to God! Praise Him all the day. Thank Him throughout the day as I see His goodness, His grace, His mercies - so many things all throughout my every day that He shows me His hand is there, it's moving. Offer myself, my life, my all to Him - each and every day, renew that commitment. Lord, this life I live, it belongs to You. Do with it as You wish, according to Your perfect will - work out Your whole will for my life at any cost, now and forever... Offer up my resources - time, talent, treasures - for Him to use as He sees fit for His glory and my good. 

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Perspective is such a powerful thing. The wrong one can lead to so much trouble and destruction, while the right one leads to life and goodness and blessing. It leads to joy. contentment. "reframing". look at things a different way -- from an eternal perspective, from a spiritual perspective. from a "God is good" perspective.

The Lord has definitely been taking me through this course for a while. I love how He just builds and builds on things. I literally feel like a work in progress. and i will always be as long as i am in this earthly body. this weekend was a really hard hitting one. i had been busy and pretty stressed for a week or two because i was preparing for my first jewelry bar. and that morning i was just so anxious. on my drive to angel's i spent that time just talking to the Lord. and He brought to mind how i had been going at it all wrong. how somewhere along the line i lost perspective of what this business opportunity is supposed to look like in my life - the role it should play. He hit me hard with the truth that i needed to hear... that He did not give me this business so that it would keep me from serving my family the way i have been called to. if i am stressing out about it and therefore not loving on my kids like i should, being short-tempered with them, and all the other symptoms that come with my being stressed... well, then i am missing the point completely. i am not being a good steward of what God has given me. if i am spending too much time on tasks related to my business, then something is wrong. God must get the first part of me and then my family... then the business. oh how He brought me low in humility that morning but OH how He flooded with me with peace and grace and mercy after my repentance! oh how freeing it was to let go of the guilt that i had built up bc deep inside, i knew i was grieving the Holy Spirit as i was being an unfaithful steward. but praise be to God - He is faithful and He cares!! He doesn't want me to keep going on the same way, He wants me to stop right there in my tracks and turn around - turn down His path, follow His lead and not get all caught up in my own frenzy of tasks and emotions.

When I first started this business endeavor, I gave it as an offering to the Lord. I asked Him to help me keep Him first, to not let it become a higher priority than it should be and thatHe would use it for His glory and not mine. That whatever His plans for it are, then so let it be. I'm not seeking to be rich - in fact, He led me to the purpose of evangelism. I don't meet new people and develop new relationships so much in my usual day to day routine. I see mostly the same people every day and those in my most frequently contacted circle are pretty much all believers. So, I have many opportunities to minister and encourage the brethren, but my opportunities to share the gospel with someone who doesn't know Jesus are few and far between.

but this business - a "social selling" business - allows me to branch out and meet new people, possibly form friendships, and, Lord willing, He will open an opportunity to share the love of Christ, to share my faith, to bring the gospel to a hurting heart who really needs to hear it. so, the accounting "bottom line" shouldn't matter when compared to the eternal, spiritual "bottom line". how can i impact others' lives, how can i impact my sphere of influence for the Kingdom? for eternity? When I stand before my Heavenly Father one day, He's not going to ask me how much money i made. He's going to ask me what i did with the opportunities i was given to share the gospel - to seek the lost and feed His sheep. and i want to be found faithful. so i need to keep my eyes on the prize... and as today's verse of the day so beautifully ties in (God You are so awesome! You reveal Your sovereignty so amazingly, thank You...) "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14 

Oh, give thanks to the Lord ! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord ! Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore! 

I Chronicles 16:8-11