Gratitude

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NKJV)

What a most difficult thing to do when grief is pounding you like the surf during a hurricane! I often described to people the feeling of grief as if I were in the ocean and I was being clobbered with one big wave after another! Really, in all things give thanks? How are we supposed to do that? How was I supposed to do that with the loss of my dear sweet bride, best friend, confidant, mentor and lover?

The thought came from my morning quiet time with the Lord! Every morning I get up, the first thing I do is talk to God – out loud! I tell him I love him and I thank him for everything he does for me, particularly my salvation through his son Jesus Christ. Even that first morning after Pat died I started my day that way. I really did not feel gratitude that morning, but I did feel his love. And I believe that is the secret – accepting God’s love and knowing he has the best planned for us:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV)

As I walked out of the house that morning to go take care of arrangements with the mortuary and the cemetery, I saw the little heart on my door that my dear sweet bride had asked me to put on all our houses. The little heart and its message put a smile on my broken heart. In my move to Texas I knew I needed to make a statement about that little heart, so I commissioned Jimmy Don Holmes of JDH Iron Designs to make a piece of art I could display in my house to remind me who Pat and I serve!LESSON LEARNED: Even though I did not feel thanksgiving in the circumstances of Pat’s death, I still knew God loved me! I also was reminded of who I serve! Keeping my time with the Lord and trying to listen to him made me understand I needed visual reminders! 

“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15, NKJV)