You are my God, and I give thanks to you. My God, I honor you highly. Give thanks to the Lord because he is good, because his mercy endures forever. [Psalm 118:28-29 (GW)]
Last week, I sat down to write in my gratitude journal and couldn’t believe my eyes. I hadn’t written in it for seven days. “I write in it every day!” I protested. Surely there was a mistake—pages must be missing. It wasn’t and they weren’t—the mistake was mine and it wasn’t pages that were missing; it was gratitude! It had been a week jam-packed with family, errands, chores, and writing—a week of “same old, same old,” just at a faster pace than usual. That, however, was no excuse for a heart oblivious to the blessings of seven ordinary days. Surely, within each one of those unexceptional but busy days there had been something for which I could thank God. Although I always offer thanks in my daily prayers, that journal has been a way of making me mindful of God’s specific blessings of each day—a way of making me see His hand in a life of the “same old, same old.”
As I tried to recollect the previous week, I realized how many things I could have listed: a self-cleaning oven, on-line banking, Amazon Prime, Excel spreadsheets, Photoshop, Moody radio, no-iron clothes, auto-save, email, peanut butter, purple asters, discount coupons, honey crisp apples, text messaging and Google. My greatest oversight, however, was not mentioning my husband in that gratitude journal. No, he didn’t do anything out-of-the ordinary; he’s still the same old husband I’ve had for nearly fifty years. Still, I’d taken him for granted, just as I had all the rest of the week’s blessings. I’d neglected to thank God that I still have a spouse to hug when a friend lost her husband to cancer that same week. Oh, how easy it is to take the blessings of our unremarkable ordinary lives for granted.
It wasn’t until something special and out of the ordinary happened that I looked for my gratitude journal and discovered those blank pages. Most of our days, however, are not extraordinary. Rarely are they marked by outstanding achievements or special recognition. For the most part, our lives are simply the “same old, same old,” consisting of the familiar daily grind with a few minor variations. Nevertheless, hidden within each ordinary day are plenty of reasons for thanksgiving, beginning with our first breath of the day.
The unthankful heart…discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! [Henry Ward Beecher]
When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive. [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
Always thank God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Ephesians 5:20 (GW)]
Enter his gates with a song of thanksgiving. Come into his courtyards with a song of praise. Give thanks to him; praise his name. [Psalm 100:4 (GW)]
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I have a love-hate relationship with my camera and its autofocus. An enormous golden silk spider hangs over the boardwalk we take through the mangroves to the beach. Officially the Nephila clavipes, the female of this species is the largest non-tarantula-like spider in North America. This impressive arachnid has spun her giant orb-like web high above the walkway. She often scares tourists when they glance up to see her suspended above their heads. While I managed to get a shot that of spider, I’d hoped to get a few more of others that have spun their webs down closer to the boardwalk. Autofocus, however, was my enemy. Because their webs were nestled in the trees, the camera looked right through the spiders and focused on the large branches and leaves behind them. My camera focused only on the spider when nothing was behind the creature, but it had plenty on which to focus when pointed at the spiders in the mangroves. The ease of having a small point-and-shoot camera that is so easy to use keeps me loving (but occasionally hating) it.
An illustration of a man stooped over with an enormous sack on his back adorned the cover of the church program. The man had a troubled look on his face as if thinking, “I’ve got this all this, now what I am supposed to do with it?” The words “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” were superimposed over the picture.
I was right. In fact, I was so right I deserved a gold star and he was so wrong that he should have gotten a big red “F” but he never admitted it. Although I congratulated myself for not saying, “I told you so!” I still wanted him to eat a little humble pie. Then the Holy Spirit did His job and rightly convicted me of being a bit self-righteous and a whole lot mean-spirited. I was reminded of Luther, a man from our church who I called “a disciple of Christ” in a previous devotion. He always greeted people with a smile and the phrase, “Jesus loves you and I do, too.” As I heard Luther’s words in my mind, I stopped in mid-gripe and remembered that Jesus loves my man and I do, too.
As I grabbed my jacket, I noticed the familiar Under Armour logo on the front. Looking down, I saw that my t-shirt advertised a local boot camp class and my shorts displayed Fila’s logo. Eyeing my husband, I saw that his shorts displayed the same logo as mine and his shirt advertised the physical therapy clinic that has treated him over the years. While my cap sported the famed Nike swish, the name of a local pub was embroidered on his. A red swish peeked out from the top of his shoes while my socks were decorated with New Balance’s logo and pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness. The large “N” on each side of our sneakers identified them as another New Balance purchase. We were virtual walking billboards and we’d paid a hefty price for the privilege of advertising other people’s goods and services!
Devotions of the Heart 