Wild Child Ministries

“In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you”. . . (1 Thessalonians 5:18 NAS)

All of us, at one time or another, have been challenged by this verse, haven’t we—because during tough times, we just don’t feel like giving thanks!

Halfway through our daughter’s 20-year rebellion, I suddenly woke up to the fact that the majority of my thoughts were being focused on my problems: my fears for Wendi’s future—my frustrations with her poor choices—my feelings of personal parenting inadequacies—my struggles to help our daughter see God’s love and desires for her. At that particular moment in life, God had gotten my attention (through His Word) that He wanted me to find ways to be thankful to Him . . . to look for and appreciate the many good things currently present in my life . . . to discover the hope and joy and peace of a having thankful spirit . . . to thank and praise Him even when I didn’t feel like it (read pages 156-159 in Wild Child, Waiting Mom to see how God led me into a daily “two-mile-walk-of-praise”).

The Bible says that being thankful is not only important for our emotional and spiritual well-being, but the exercise of thankfulness—even in the hardest of times—is essential in our relationship with Christ, and an integral ingredient of personal spiritual growth. Praising God in tough times draws us more deeply into His magnificent love and generates a precious reliance of trust and rest in His sufficiency for all our needs.

Now, here I am, almost ten years after Wendi’s return to the Savior, learning yet another lesson about being a thankful child of God. Not too long ago I experienced a physical problem that twice landed me in the emergency room, one visit resulting in a several-day hospital stay. My physical problems were related to a wildly arrhythmic heart. Shortly after I was released from the hospital I found myself looking at people through the lens of their healthy hearts. As middle-aged shoppers strode by I’d silently wonder, Have you given thanks to God today that your heart beats steadily without instruction from you? A twenty-something girl hurrying past would trigger the thought, When was the last time you thanked God that you are healthy and strong? In watching fathers playfully interacting with their young sons my soul asked theirs, Are you appreciative that you can do that without shortness of breath? Seeing carefree teens horsing around in the mall made my heart want to shout, Be thankful! Be thankful!

We take so much for granted . . . until it is gone . . . or broken . . . or failing.

Today I exhort each of us to regularly and purposefully tell God thank you. Thank Him for the things so often taken for granted:  legs that walk . . . ears and eyes that work well . . . hearts that beat properly . . . lungs that breathe without help. Let’s thank Him for music and colors and lakes and cherished pets . . . for sunshine and rainbows and breezes . . . for the ability to read and think and talk  . . . for the privilege of communing one-on-one with almighty God. For religious freedom. For our more-than-ample American conveniences. Thank Him for friends and family (warts and all). Praise Him for the fact that, though He didn’t have to, God crafted a plan for His children (self-centered, sinful, and often ungrateful as we are) to one day live in His presence, with perfect bodies and in complete joy, forever and ever . . . Wow! Thank Him for that.

Let’s be grateful, appreciative children toward our wondrous heavenly Father.

“Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” . . . (Hebrews 13:15 – KJV)

~ Karilee Hayden