What are you thankful for? This is the question everyone asks around Thanksgiving.
Family? Friends? Health?
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
A few years ago, I remember reading this verse and thinking, “Honestly, I’m not feeling very thankful.” In my mind, nothing was going right. (I had things to be thankful for, but my brain couldn’t see it.)
It was around this time that I started reading The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom. The book was about her experience surviving a Nazi concentration camp and how she kept her sanity in the midst of hell. The entire book will change your life, but the part that really spoke to me was when Corrie and her sister Betsie got moved to Ravensbrück and realized the place was infested with fleas:
“That’s it, Corrie! That’s His answer. ‘Give thanks in all circumstances!’ That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!”
I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.
“Such as?” I said.
“Such as being assigned here together.”
“Thank you,” Betsie went on serenely, “for the fleas and for…”
The fleas! This was too much. “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”
“ ‘Give thanks in all circumstances,’” she quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”
And so, we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for the fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong. (The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom)
A few days go by, and the guards never get close to their barracks. This allowed Corrie to open up the Bible (that she sneaked into camp) and share the message of Christ to all the women around them.
Guess how they were able to hold these Bible studies without being in fear?
The fleas.
Betsie overheard a guard say they weren’t going to get close to their barracks because it was infested with fleas!
I don’t know where you find yourself today.
Maybe:
The diagnosis is terminal.
You are tired of being single.
Your spouse left you.
Nothing seems to be going right.
Wherever you are, you can still live with a thankful heart.
How?
Shift your mindset to gratitude and trust that no matter what your circumstance is, God WILL show up and turn your story around- Either on this side of earth or in Heaven.
He knows what is best for you.
Every experience, every person God puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.
If Corrie Ten Boom could be thankful for fleas, we can be thankful.
Retrain your brain from only seeing negative by starting a gratitude journal. Every day write 5 things that you are thankful for. Eventually the “fleas” will be seen in a new light.
