Sound of Surviving Blog

In our lives, we have so much to be thankful for and to praise God for, but we often zoom in and spend too much time grumbling about what we wish we had, and our lives would be so much simpler if we had it. It’s funny that if we had to list every single thing, person, or moment we are thankful for, we’d probably have a list that wraps around the world and back. Yet, we often choose to focus on what we’re lacking, what we think we should have, and how our lives would be better if we had those things.

We often take for granted the things we deem as ordinary, like our homes, groaning about having to clean them, or do the dishes, but a messy house means we have more to be thankful for than just a house. Dirty dishes mean we have food to eat, and laundry implies we have clothes to wear. We are living someone else’s dream life right now. I once read a quote that reads, “Love lives in the imperfect, the messy, and the real. Love lies in the forgotten gravy”.

Paul says in Ephesians 5:20 that we are to “give thanks always and for everything”. We should be giving thanks to God continually, not just on Thanksgiving. It’s great to have a day where we celebrate and reflect on what we’re grateful for, but what if we lived our lives doing that every other day of the year?

You see, when we focus on the blessings we already have in our lives, our perspective shifts. We start forgetting the things we once thought would make our lives better when we realize how much we have been blessed with already.  Our mood changes. If we’re continually praising God for all that he’s given us, our eyes are opened to how much we truly have, rather than how much we’re lacking. What if instead of moaning about the messes we have to clean up, we started thanking God for them, as Paul calls us to do? What if instead of, “Oh, I have to cook dinner again tonight,” we praised God, saying, “Thank you, Lord, for these mouths I have to feed, for giving me a family that loves me.”? When we start thanking God for everything, we might just find that the things we think are little ones are really the most important.