Giving thanks for the small things

We encourage you to daily take time to give thanks (with your family - around the dinner table) for one thing in your life.

Here's what I know about prayer:

When we pray, we pray, normally to get things from God, don't we.

And there is nothing wrong with asking God to meet our needs.

Another phase of prayer is when we pray to get out of things.  An illness.  A debt.  A crisis.

But there is a deeper phase of prayer that I am trusting all of our church family will participate in this month - this "month of thanksgiving."

It is the prayer of giving thanks to God.

And normally, giving thanks need not be quarantined to "just" the "big" things in our lives, but the "small" things as well.

A sunset.  A sunrise.  A hot cup of coffee to start your day.

A moment with your kids as they go to sleep.

Another day of living with good health.

The ability to see.

The ability to hear.

The ability to walk.

A great meal with good friends.

A scriptures that speaks to you.

The "small" things of life.

Minnesota storyteller Kevin Kling was born with a birth defect - his left arm was disabled and much shorter than his right.

Then, in his early 40's a motorcycle accident nearly killed him and paralyzed his healthy right arm. 

While he was in the hospital recovering from the accident, Kevin learned a life-changing lesson about prayer and giving thanks.

He said:

"I'd been through many surgeries during my six week stay in the hospital.  And every day, I would ride the elevator to the ground floor and try to take a walk.  That was  my job.  9/11 had happened the week before.  And as our country was entering trauma, I was living one.

After my walk, my wife Mary and I went into the gift shop, and she asked if I wanted an apple.  She said they looked really good.

Now, I hadn't tasted food in over a month....I lost a lot of weight because food had no appeal.  So I said no, but she persisted.  Come one.  Try it. 

So finally, I said all right.  And I took a bite.  And for some reason, that was the day flavor returned, and that powerful sweetness rushed from that apple.  Oh, it was incredible.

I started to cry, cry for the first time in years.  And tears flowed and as the anesthesia and antibiotics flushed through my tears, it burned my eyes.  And between the sweetness of that apple and the burning of my tears, it felt so good to be alive. 

I blurted out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for this life."

And that's when my prayers shifted, again to giving thanks."

Great stuff. 

A moment of thanksgiving, because of an apple.  And the realization that in eating that apple - life was extended.

The word of the day?  Of the month?  Ask God to meet your needs.  Ask God to take you out of difficult situations.

But most of all - let's give thanks to God - for the "small" things as well as the "big" things.

Just a thought for a Thursday.