Giving Thanks Always!

          I have been teaching pre-school children off and on for many years now -- long enough that some of my former students are adults -married with children of their own.  I guess I am aging myself here -- but that's OK.   It just means that I have this rich collection of memories stored up in my heart.  Teaching the Bible to anyone is a challenge; but the reward is well worth it.
          Once I was attempting to teach a group of young children about being thankful.  I wanted to focus on all the blessings we get from God.  However, I am not sure ever got there with this one little girl in my class.  I love the pure innocence of children.  I told the class that we should be thankful for our food and other things and then I asked them about their clothes. 
        "Where do your clothes come from?" I asked
        "From Wal Mart," came this young lady's reply.
        " But how did you get them from Wal  Mart?"
        "My Daddy buys them for me."
        "How does your daddy get the money to pay for your clothes?"
        "Well, he just pulls his wallet out of his pocket and gets the money out."
        I think it was at that point that I just gave up and tried to explain it without asking any more questions.  Obviously, I was going the long way around to get to the point that God blesses us to earn money so we can buy our clothes and other things we need.  Some things are harder to explain than others.  I have learned more about teaching since then.  But that sweet little girl was only telling me exactly what she knew.  Children at that age think so literally that it did not dawn on her to think about clothing being a blessing from God.
        What about us though?  Do we understand that everything we have --EVERYTHING comes from God?  Or do we get so busy putting so much time in at work earning our paycheck, that we begin to think we have done it our own?  Do we begin to think that what we have accomplished has nothing to do with God blessing us?  Be careful.. I don't think this feeling makes God very happy. 
         James 1:17 says "Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."  
        John 3:27 - "John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."
        OK folks according to the scriptures every good and perfect comes from God.  How much clearer than John 3:27 be?  If you have something. God has given it to you.  Now that doesn't mean that we just sit down where we are and never do anything else.  We can't just wait for God to come by and just drop blessings right in our lap.  We are expected to work and earn our keep.  But it is God who blessed you so that you have the job you have; and that you have the strength and ability to do your work.  Everything we have goes back to God one way or another, so we should evermore be thankful to Him for all our blessings.  It is what God expects us to do.  Being thankful comes with its own blessings.  The more thankful you are, the more you think about everything God has given you.  Knowing that God loves you enough to bestow all these blessings and understanding that He blesses us even as we are going through some of the hardest and saddest times of our lives -- He is still blessing us -loving us and hoping that we will reach out to Him.  The more you realize and appreciate all your blessings, the happier you are.  But being thankful also humbles us a little and makes us realize that if God is blessing us in any way - we should use those blessings to help other people. 
         Let's look at a couple of more scriptures and I will step down off the soap box for the night.  Consider Ephesians 5:20 - "Giving thanks always for all things unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
        I Thessalonians 5:18 - "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of Christ in Christ Jesus concerning you."  It is the Savior's will that we give thanks for everything -- for all things.  If we fail to be thankful - then we fail Him.   Let's try our best not to disappoint Him.
       My Dad has shared this thought with me ... What if you woke up one morning and all you had was what you had been thankful for the day before?  Good question!

     Learn to be thankful.  It is God's will.  Let's not disappoint him.

Christ above all things,
Robin