Something Worth Talking About

As this month came and the time for me to write another blog came upon me, I found myself grappling for an idea of what I should write about. Last night I spent some time outside while there was the most amazing thunderstorm that I had ever seen. It was more brilliant than a display of fireworks, more vibrating than a sonic boom sound system. I sat there, and all the while, all I could think about was ‘why’. Why did God do all of this for us? He did not have to. Just think that if we never had thunder, we would never know what we were missing out on. 
I know that I have written a blog about being thankful in the past, but I wanted to write on it again. Last night it was like God was saying, “Look at all I have made for you. Look at all the detail I have put into everything. I did not have to, but I did, and I did it because I love you and I want you to appreciate it.” 
Time seems to go so very fast, and we always have a million things to do in a day.  I know that I always get mad when I cannot get everything done that I wanted to in a day. Sometimes if I want to get the stuff done in my day and talk to people, I have to multitask. It just came to me that I can multitask in giving God praise and thanks. How long does it take to say thank you? Maybe two seconds max, and yet we are not able to find time to say it to God every day. If you are a polite person you say it to a lot of the people around you; whenever someone brings you a drink or hands you something, it is natural for you to say thank you, even for the small things that they give you. If they give you something big, most people take the time to write a thank you note. Have you ever written a thank you note to God? I do not mean saying something in your journal or something like that. Have you sat down and hand written a note that starts, “Dear God, Thank you”? Thinking back, I am not sure that I ever have.
Why is it so very hard to tell God thank you? Most people pray for their meals and stuff like that, but do you do that out of habit and because you know it is the right thing to do or do you do it because you really are truly grateful for the food God has given you? Thinking about all that God has given me, it just blows my mind. I know that if I thanked Him all day and all night I would still not be able to thank Him enough for all that He has done for me. But just because I know I could never say it enough does not give me the liberty to just stop saying it all together.
Or I am guilty of the crime of just saying, “Oh, I know how much God knows I am blessed by all that He gives me.”  Even if you know someone really likes the gift that you gave them, it is still nice to get a thank you. This is something that is dying among us as a society. People think they have a right to what they get, so they think that they do not have to be grateful for it. 
We have a right to a life time in hell and that is it; that is not a right that I want to claim. Everything that God has given us is a gift, and I am amazed at all that He has given and put into the creation of this world that we do not need. And yet with all that He has given us, we still manage to forget all about Him and His gifts. 


Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above...
James 1:17

Project: To tell God “thank you” 24 times a day; that is once for every hour. We have a practice in our family of being thankful whenever we have devotions together. And sometimes we are so lame that all we can find to be thankful for is polar bears in the North Pole (or wherever they live). But we still have to be thankful for something. I’m sure you can do better than we do sometimes.




Follow up: Well, I know for sure that I will be working on this project some more because just today I was griping about the fact that I was really underpaid for a baby sitting job, but if I had done it out of love and not for the money I should not even care. So I will still be working on this one.