Grumbling or Thanksgiving?
How is your week going? Here is how my “normal” Monday went about a week before Thanksgiving. My kids woke me up earlier than I wanted to get up. I stumbled out to the living room to find them busily working on a robot made of blocks. I gave them each their normal morning milk, we spent time with Jesus, and I went on to do my normal 10 minute exercise that took 40 minutes to complete because of all the interruptions. We had our breakfast and then started our “homeschool part of the day”. We completed an hour worth of work over a 2 hour period. With a tornado of a toddler that is potty training and a younger sister who is also “doing school” with brother our days take a little longer to complete during this season… and thats okay because that is where the life, learning, and love takes place.
We worked together during a break time to make brownies for our guest that were coming for dinner. I love watching my children learn to use their gift of hospitality. While our oven was heating up I smelled smoke, but just assumed it was a little bit of lasagna or pie that bubbled over from that last use of the oven. The smell was stronger though, and different. I looked down to find the inside of the oven was in flames. I panicked for a brief second, turned the oven off, took a coffee mug of water to put out the fire and of coarse it smoked for awhile. But it seemed to be still smoking longer than normal. I was almost thinking of calling the fire department when I pulled out the broiler/warmer section to reveal a kitchen towel still smoldering . I discovered my two year old must have stuffed it down there one day.
In the midst of me cleaning up the mess, the two year old got into the Destin diaper cream and rubbed it all over the coach and squirted it on the carpet. Do you know how hard that stuff is to get out? And did I mention I was expecting dinner guests the night? While the Destin was being squirted and I was cleaning up the mess and trying to get lunch ready the two older kids had an accident. One of their heads hit the others mouth, causing one to have teeth marks in their head and the other to have a bloody lip. I cleaned up the blood, I kissed the boo boos, I handed out ice, I wiped up the brownie batter faces, and scrubbed up the diaper cream and then We went on with our day.
I wanted the oven to cool down so I used my parents oven to finish up our brownies (We live in my parents basement but have our own kitchen). In response to being able to use my parents oven the kids were very excited and said “what a blessing it is we have another oven, now we can have brownies for our guest!”. In the midst of all the chaos, my children did not see it. They felt joy and had a thankful heart for the blessings God gave us that day despite the circumstances and set backs.
We finished up our brownies and lunch then my kids headed to the living room to make an Indian fort out of coach cushions while I wrote, reflected, and read for about a half hour before getting back to finishing our homeschool day. This had been a normal day. No, we do not have a fire every day. But there is something. Something that pushes back the time, or we feel gets in the way. Someone that irritates us or stresses us out. A child that is sick, emotional, or disobedient. A coworker with a bad attitude, a boss that is unfair. The hustle to take our kids from here to there. The lonliness or being in an empty nest or empty home. The tiredness and the busyness of having a family at home. The stresses of “clocking in everyday”. There is always something in our lives each and every day. Something to bring us down, that does not give us rest but chaos, exhaustion, and fear. The Lord commands us to do all things without grumbling. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing (Phillipians 2:14).”
In the midst of our chaos and our “normal” days when the “fires” of this life comes. Put it out joyfully, put it out with thanksgiving. I cant help but think of my childrens tender, thankful hearts in response to our chaotic morning. What if we all turned our little disasters and daily turmoil into thanksgiving and joy. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1Thessalonians 5:18)”. Not only are we to not grumple about things but we are also to give thanks in all circumstances! As humans we tend to want to complain in all the negative circumstances and give thanksgiving in the ones that we like.
Thanksgiving is gone and over and most of us will enter back into our normal work week. Its often easy to give thanks on a day filled with food, love, and family. It is harder to do it in the regular and mundane, yet the Lord commands us to give thanks everyday not just one day of the year. Thanksgiving evening I received a little reminder to give thanks among the “fire” of this life. I was having a good time talking with my mom, thinking my husband was watching our 2 year old. Likeiwse my husband husband thought I had her. Little did we know she had taken everything off the first few shelves of my parents pantry and was having a hayday in some coco powder and flour. This was a gift to me to remember to be thankful in all circumstances! She was so cute standing there covered in powder with and innocent yet embarressed looking face. Thanksgiving was not over yet, but I had a little glipmse of what Monday may look like. Would I face it with complaints or thanksgiving. When you enter into this week try thanking the Lord instead of being negative. I pray that you to see his blessing instead of the turmoil. We all have different lives and purposes the Lord has set before us but we are all to be a light for him and to do all our work for him joyfully. Realizing troubles will come new each day, but his mercies are also new each day. We are to respond with thanksgiving and giving thanks will change everything about your normal but not so normal kind of day.