Give thanks

I'm doing a bible study right now called, "In Everything Give Thanks." It was designed for this season, this Thanksgiving season, but I feel like it was written specifically for me. I started it last week and over the course of one week I've gone through a roller coaster of emotions and circumstances and had all sorts of various things thrown my way and all the while this little voice in my heart whispering, "Give thanks. Give thanks. Give thanks." And so I have been.

I want to be more thankful. I want the greed and the worldly desires in my heart to be replaced with contentment and appreciation. I want to stop looking for more, more, more and start being grateful for what's in front of me and what I've been blessed with. Because it really truly is so much.

But beyond that, I want to stop looking at the things to feel thankful for. Because the things don't matter. I want to cultivate relationships and love and friendships and memories. I want to live a life rich in the intangible things. I can sure get into the neediness of this life. I live just a few blocks from Target and I can sure walk through that store and feel pretty bad about my life. I can whine that I can't afford a candle in every scent ever and the newest plates and dishes and the cutest little Christmas trinkets that I so obviously do not need and I can make a long list of everything I don't have. And that list is suddenly so overwhelmingly, glaringly obvious in the face of everything that I do have. And it overwhelms the goodness of this life, the goodness that I have right in front of me.

I want to be thankful in my greed.
Thankful in my suffering.
Thankful when I'm content.
Thankful when I'm hurting.
Thankful when I'm happy.
Thankful when there's enough.
Thankful when there's not.
Thankful in everything.

In everything give thanks; give thanks in everything.