The Comeback

I’ve been reflecting on gratitude this week. At one time I was a negative, glass half empty person, but then I discovered the power of gratitude. As a result, I started turning my complaining into thankfulness and praise, and it’s truly changed my life.

One of my favorite gratitude quotes is by Melody Beattie, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” It unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more! That's so powerful!

A few Sundays ago, our Pastor shared a history of Thanksgiving I’d never heard before. “Although prayers and thanks were probably offered at the 1621 harvest gathering, the first recorded religious Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth happened two years later in 1623. On this occasion, the colonists gave thanks to God for rain after a two-month drought.”

Pastor Stevie shared that during the drought William Bradford gathered the settlers and acknowledged they had failed to give thanks to God for all his provision. At this time, they stopped and offered up praise and thanksgiving for all God had blessed them with. Afterwards it rained for three days, and their harvest was saved!

As I heard this, I was brought back to a sermon, Divided Plates, Pastor Justin shared this spring. It was based on Luke 17:11-19 where Jesus heals the ten lepers. Jesus told them, “Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went they were cleansed,” but only ONE came back! Verses 15 and 16, “when he saw he was healed, he came back, praising God. He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him.”

I have written down the difference between healing and wholeness was the comeback. I haven't been able to escape this statement. I also wrote down, when we turn our blessing into praise it opens us up to an even greater blessing.

I've also been circling around the idea of the abundant life. Jesus said in John 10:10 “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” What if they’re connected? What if we attain the full abundance of life through our praise and thankfulness? What if God's just waiting for you to walk into your wholeness?

It's so easy to fall into ungratefulness. We pray for something, it happens, and we quickly forget God’s grace, mercy, and provision. I encourage you to be the one. Make your comeback! Turn your blessings into praises. We are so abundantly blessed, and when we open our eyes to it, we begin to see it everywhere.

Start small. It can be as easy as jotting down a few things before you start your day or before you go to bed at night, and my three-year-old will tell you, it can be as simple as, “BEEF!” We practice our gratitude at the dinner table.

Speaking of meat, I’ll end with kid humor, because it’s one of the many things I’m grateful for in my life. Children truly do bring so much humor and laughter when you take the time to watch and listen for it.

One night we were at my parents for dinner and the topic of meat came up. As you can tell, it’s a favorite topic in our family. I’m pretty sure I’m raising carnivores. It started, “Beef is cow. Chicken is roosters. Bacon and ham are pig,” and then… “people are meat!” The look on my mom’s face as she paused midbite. There was this awkward pregnant pause. Then Noah quickly stated, “but we don’t eat people!” LOL! Glad we cleared that up!

Psalms 9:1 "I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds."

Psalms 77:11-12 "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds."

“The most powerful weapon against your daily battles is finding the courage to be grateful anyway.” ~Unknown