Thanksgiving

Sitting around tables all across America, people (hopefully) took a moment to consider all the blessings they were thankful for over this past year. But I wonder how many people included in their list, things that made their life more difficult? “I’m thankful for the difficult season of my life this past spring when ….” Often when we think of things we are thankful for, we only bring to mind those pleasant events. But most of our growth in life occurs not in the times of plenty but in times of lack. It’s a drought that causes trees to dig deep with their roots in search of water. But when water is near the surface, they don’t bother trying. We are the same way. Hard times make us dig deep. So this Thanksgiving, Danika and I stopped to consider one thing this year, one event, or one season of difficulty for which we are thankful, and why. It helps to keep difficult times in perspective to remember that God is still  in control of all the events of our lives. If He is good, and He is, then whether we can see it at the moment or not, even hard times can be a blessing. Sometimes we just may need to be thankful as an act of faith. But other times, as we grow to appreciate the role such times play in our lives, we learn to thank God for the hard times as readily as we do the pleasant.