Thankful

So I feel utterly behind the bandwagon in everything holiday related this year.  Not only is this typical Thanksgiving blog post about Thankfulness late, but instead of being excited as I looked at everyone else's apartment (because you can literally see into almost 25 apartments from our balcony) and seeing Christmas trees and lights up, I felt stressed.  Stressed to get our tree out of our storage in the basement, stressed about money and buying all our Christmas gifts, stressed about sending out Christmas cards, and stressed about all the things that needed to get done when you're gone for 5 days!  Isn't it odd how a couple days before Thanksgiving Christmas seems so far away, and then all of the sudden, BAM Thanksgiving comes and you feel like everyone is counting down the days?  Maybe its the commercials and concerts on t.v., or the decorations and cold weather, but my stress level increased just a little when we got home on Sunday.

Nonetheless, this year the Lord is definitely doing a work in my heart on being content, and I think a large part of contentedness is thankfulness.  I found this great quote by Melody Beattie (we're related lol) on this blog here:

How much do we measure gratitude by what others have and not by what we have?  I think that facebook has unlocked a whole new world of ungratefulness- at least for me.  In a given day, my thoughts go from "Wow their first home is huge- I don't know if we will ever own a home that nice" to "I wish we spent more money on engagement pictures, their pictures are SO great."  I know- aren't those SUCH superficial thoughts?  Well, those exact thoughts have crossed my mind on more than one occasion.  It seems pathetic when I write them down and confess them, but in the moment, I believe with all my heart that having that house or nice engagement pictures will make my life so much more complete than it is right now.  In this quote Melody hits it right on the nail when she says "gratefulness turns what we have into enough, and more ...  it brings peace for today..." 

 Paul advises Timothy that: ^"Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, ⁷for  we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world." 1 Timothy 6:6-7

What if we viewed ourselves for how we really are: sinners deserving of nothing but hell.  How is that for a reality check?  We deserve nothing and don't even have the ability to do good outside of Christ.  But, God in His perfect love gives us all that we need: Christ.  Does he bless us with more sometimes?  Yes, but do we need those "extra blessings" to be content?  No.  I can't imagine the sadness it brings God when His children get more excited for His gifts and forget about Him. Our contentment and gratitude comes from the fact that we have a Savior who gives us eternal life and purpose in this life.  When I leave this world I won't be taking my house or engagement pictures.  Those things won't bring contentment then and they won't bring contentment now.   All that matters is Him.  How I pray I can believe that everyday and be thankful for what I do have without getting caught up in wanting things that don't satisfy anyway.