Tip of My Iceberg

Kolly’s words are flowing more frequently and clearly. At nineteen months, she has a mind of her own and words to express what that mind is thinking. She loves people, and her grins and giggles typically bring a like response from those older than her in the room.

Kolly learned to say “please” fairly quickly. It’s the word that often gets a person what they want. “Thank you” has been a little harder. She’s great with the American sign language gesture for the phrase, but phonetically it’s a little tougher to say than “please”.

Plus she doesn’t always want to say thank you.

Too often I feel like that little girl, one who is quick to ask for what I want but not as rapid with words of gratitude.

I’m not the only one who struggles with a thankful spirit.

We in America celebrate Thanksgiving today. Yes, there’s a lot of history behind this holiday that people don’t often agree with, but the purpose is to pause and remind ourselves that we have so much to be grateful for–no matter what our circumstances in life. The fact th we get a new day to begin again, to choose to do life differently, better, than we have before.

Thankfulness is a choice, We have the opportunity each day to be grateful.

Life is a gift from God. We live at His favor, for we’re each made in His image.

American rapper and singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill has said, “Everything we do should be a result of our gratitude for what God has done for us.”

The problem is that it’s much easier to complain about what we don’t have than being able to see the wonder of what we do have. The world around us tells us we deserve more, we should have more.

We act as if entitlement is our right. What entitlement does do is make us dissatisfied with what we do have.

Author and speaker John Ortberg has said, “Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-occupation.”

The beauty of being thankful is we have to look outside ourselves to do it. Gratitude is other-focused and helps us take our eyes off whatever we feel is our challenge and seek to find that which is typically right in front of us–the many blessings that the Lord so lavishly gives us out of His deep love for each of us.

King David knew Who he needed to focus his gratitude on:

“Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind.” Psalm 107:21

We have a heavenly Father who seeks to pour out His love on us if we let Him.

“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” James 1:17

What is more gratifying than having Someone who loves you completely? What will raise our hearts of thankfulness more than Someone who really sees us and embraces us with delight, knowing our worst secrets and not holding them against us?

Kolly is learning to say “thank you”. Her folks encourage her, reminding her to say it because it’s the right thing to do.

She makes me think of little Piglet from the Winnie the Pooh stories.

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” A.A. Milne

Our hearts can hold an incredible amount of gratitude and thankfulness.

You’ve got to give your heart a chance.

Happy Thanksgiving!