Job was a man whose situation makes me shudder. He lost everything except his own life and the choices he made on how to live it, and God rewarded him greatly for his faith. I'm not sure that, if put in the same position, I'd be quite as honorable. What was the key to his ability to live through the tragedy of losing his home, possessions, and family? How did he manage to live through and come out onto the other side?
Many Christians say faith is the key. Have faith that God will deliver you. And yet tragedy continues to throw good and faithful Christians to the wolves. Situations don't seem to change with prayer. Then how do some remain faithful? This is where non-believers can point a finger at believers and say, "Where is your God now? You're a good person and you prayed for this to happen. Why does he choose to answer some prayers and not others?" In these times of tragegy, some Christians just lose faith.
Well, actually there's an answer to this.
God answers every aligned prayer.
Every. One.
Notice the extra word - aligned. In other words, if your intentions are pure, and you've chosen to follow His path, you only need to ask Him how to proceed, and He will guide you to make the choices necessary to make it happen. Prayers that stem from despair, anxiety, anger, greed, suspicion, and any other emotion stemming from fear keep you from lining up with what He has in store for you, and those prayers cannot be answered. That's not the way God operates. As I read once in the book Breathing Underwater, God is all about providing for our needs but not necessarily our wants. And our needs are up to His discretion. Are we lined up with his will for our lives? If so - watch the prayers get answered!
So what does this have to do with giving thanks? One thing I have learned through my divorce is that God allows us free will and the ability to learn. He provides us with the tools to become closer to him, and it is our choice as to how we use those tools. Some people walk away from Him. Some pay little or no attention to the Divine and try to fix things or heal alone. Some draw nearer. Those of us who have drawn nearer start to understand that every situation - significant or not - is a situation from which we can learn. Each learning experience brings with it a new set of questions and "ah-ha" moments if we would just allow those moments to happen.
Staying present and watching each situation with curiosity and an expectation to learn means that we start to learn and change at a quicker pace. We begin to realize that God grants our needs before we even know we need them, and this is where gratitude comes.
I've heard dozens of moms say that they wish their kids were more grateful. More appreciative. As a grown-up, I, myself have preached the "be grateful for what you have" speech a multitude of times. But we are not simply talking about the "you should be grateful for that food on your plate because there are kids in other parts of the world who don't have food to eat" idea. We are talking about the ability to learn and grow. When adversity hits, this is the capacity to thank the Almighty for the message and the opportunity to change, discover, and become new.
This is a difficult concept to teach our youngsters but not an impossible one. It's a matter of pointing out learning opportunities when adversity stands in our paths and the paths of our kiddos. Of saying thankful prayers out loud in front of them and then pointing out how we grew at the end.
That being said, I am truly grateful for the situations that I have found myself in over the last forty-two years. Although I spent a majority of my life ignoring Jesus and his soothing forgiveness, once I found my way back, the lessons I should have learned during some very difficult times of my life started to flood over me and the metamorphosis has been overwhelming! Events over the last year have come together and worked together in a seamless pattern of healing and change. And the new me is emerging.
I cannot express how truly joyful I am when I think of all that I've learned about myself and the woman I'm becoming. Is this what kept Job so close to God? I cannot imagine what else could have held him steadfast on his journey, regardless of what he lost. So this year, my Thanksgiving stems from gratitude for forgiveness and unconditional love, for friends who stand by me in my ugliest times, and those who check on me while I'm becoming aware of myself and expanding. I am truly the luckiest woman alive.
Namaste.
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