Rooted (Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xanxhor/)

I am firmly rooted, built up, established in my faith, and overflowing with gratitude.

Colossians 2:7

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Receiving Yeshua as Lord, accepting His authority over my life, I am called to walk in Him because I am firmly rooted and being built up and established in faith.  This causes my gratitude to overflow.  I’m not loosely rooted that I might fall out of the ground or be pulled up.  My roots are firm and solid, strong against the seasons.  I am not fully grown nor fully established, but I am a work in progress as each brick is laid and each leaf begins to bud.  Each day as I learn more about Him I grow more.  And everything He teaches me and everything He does for me and through me causes my gratitude, my thankfulness and appreciation to overflow, spilling into the lives of others.  Or at least, it should.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; to declare Thy lovingkindess in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night.

I don’t give thanks nearly as often as I should.  There are so many things that I have to be thankful for: my family, a place to live, cars that drive, a job, being healthy and relatively strong, imagination, beauty, a Bible to read and a community to talk with, music and the ability to worship, electricity and technology, laughter (especially my children’s), the ability to buy food, living in America, days off, clean water, my cell phone (Sometimes), joy, words, forgiveness, grace …YHWH.

It is good!  And I’m thankful I can sing praises!  He is reliable and faithful, no matter where I’ve been.

Thank you YHWH!

Romans 16:25

God is able to make you strong, just as the Good News says. It is the message about Jesus Christ and his plan for you Gentiles, a plan kept secret from the beginning of time.

I’m thankful that God can make me strong because there are so many areas where I need strength today and every day.  Today I need strength to forgive and to love because I’m dealing with a situation where I’m expected to put someone first by someone who isn’t doing the very thing I’m supposed to do.  Confused?  That’s okay.  I’m just being a mom trying to protect her cubs.  Sigh.  I’m thankful for this situation because it’s making me more patient, and because when we finally have our own home, there are so many many things I will be grateful for.

Romans 5:3-4

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us–they help us learn to endure.  And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation.

This whole trials and rejoicing and all that has been on my mind lately.  Since my family seems to be stuck in a loop of the same or similar problems and trials, I sure hope I’m building something good.  I suppose endurance is one of those things.  It really gets frustrating sometimes to be as old as I am and not really be more financially secure.  I know it’s tough on my husband because he feels it’s his fault in a lot of ways (which it really isn’t), especially since he’s supposed to be the provider and all that.  And I sure hope that we’re building character, too.  Building character always reminds me of that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin’s dad tells him that he’s building character.  It’s not the most spiritual of things, but I’m going to post a couple here because I love Bill Watterson’s cartoon series and because it’s relevant.

Last thought on endurance and character and all of that.  I suppose that rejoicing in the clouds and not just in the silver lining reminds us that God can work through anything.  The clouds just make His solutions that more amazing.

Christ in Me
by Max Lucado

Like Mary, you and I are indwelt by Christ.

Find that hard to believe? How much more did Mary? No one was more surprised by this miracle than she was. And no one more passive than she was. God did everything. Mary didn’t volunteer to help. (emphasis added) What did she have to offer? She offered no assistance.

And she offered no resistance. Instead she said, “Behold, the bond- slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Unlike Mary, we tend to assist God, assuming our part is as important as his. Or we resist, thinking we are too bad or too busy. Yet when we assist or resist, we miss God’s great grace. We miss out on the reason we were placed on earth-to be so pregnant with heaven’s child that he lives through us. To be so full of him that we could say with Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20)

What would that be like? To have a child within is a miracle, but to have Christ within?

To have my voice, but him speaking.
My steps, but Christ leading.
My heart, but his love beating
in me, through me, with me.
What’s it like to have Christ on the inside?

To tap his strength when mine expires
or feel the force of heaven’s fires
raging, purging wrong desires.
Could Christ become my self entire?

So much him, so little me
That in my eyes it’s him they see.
What’s it like to a Mary be?
No longer I, but Christ in me.

From Next Door Savior
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2003) Max Lucado

Very cool, no?  I love that Mary didn’t try to “help” God accomplish His will.  She let Him do what He said He would do.  There are many times when I need to stop trying to help God and just let Him work.  Otherwise my way just gets in the way.

My other thought that I thought I’d share is that yesterday someone reminded me not to complain but to always be thankful.  I didn’t react very well at the time, but it did make me think last night.  While I am very thankful for what I have, and I do express that a lot, I also tend to complain a lot.  So, in light of the new year, I think I’m going to make an effort to complain less.  I’m also going to try and be thankful for what I don’t have (that was a thought that just hit me right now).  Being thankful for what I don’t have is a little tougher, but when I don’t have what I want, or even what I think I need, doesn’t that give God a chance to do awesome things?

Just a thought.

Matthew 7:11

If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

It seems like we have a theme going these last few days, about giving and receiving!  Maybe it’s the Christmas season, or maybe God’s trying to pound something into my head.  I’ve always heard it said that if God doesn’t give you the thing you ask for it’s because there’s something better He has for me later.  I don’t know if that’s true or if He doesn’t give me the thing I ask for because I’m asking for something that’ll hurt me.  However you want to look at it, God loves His children and isn’t going to give bad gifts.  Look at Jesus, for example.  You can’t get a much better gift than freedom, salvation, and eternity with God!  But the ephemeral aside, He does give good gifts to us on this side of heaven.

I recently watched a TED talk by the guy who followed all the rules of the Bible literally for a year (or at least most of them).  Aside for the fact that he’s agnostic and he’s hilarious, the one part of the talk that stuck out to me what when he talked about thankfulness.  He was referring to the verse that says to give thanks in all things.  As he went through the year giving thanks for everything he said it made him realize how much he had to be thankful for.  Whether you believe in God or not, we are far more blessed than we often realize.  There are so many things to give thanks for, and that’s even more obvious in this season where we (hopefully) focus on giving to others.

I love Christmas for the lights, the beauty, and the time off of work, but I also absolutely love buying Christmas presents!  As difficult as it can be sometimes, I love finding and picking out presents that make people smile.  And I think that’s what Christmas is partially about – loving the act of giving to others, which reflects God’s joy at giving to us.  And, like this verse says, His gifts are good.  I may not understand how it’s good right now (especially if it’s not what I asked for), but in the long run I will understand more, and hopefully appreciate the gifts He’s given to me.

1 Chronicles 16:34

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

It’s Thanksgiving!  So, it’s only appropriate to spend a few moments thinking about the things I am thankful for…  Here’s my short list:

1.  My family – I have an amazing husband and 2 beautiful and gregarious little boys.  They make me smile every day!  I also have a generous and kind extended family (my parents and siblings, and John’s parents and siblings).

2.  I have a job – thank you God for providing!

3.  I have a roof over my head – thank you God for providing!

4.  I and my family are healthy – thank you God for your hand of healing over me and my family!

5.  I have a church where I am fed and encouraged – thank you God for your Family of Christ!

6.  I am a New Creation – thank you God for you salvation and the blood of Christ over my life!  (Ok, maybe this should have been first, but I’m putting them in the order that they come to mind…)

7.  I have a car that drives (and John’s does, too) – thank you God for your faithfulness!

8.  I have a laptop that works – that may seem insignificant, but with the amount of work this laptop gets (and the number of times it does weird things), it’s almost a miracle!  Thank you God!

9.  We can afford to buy food and even a few Christmas presents this year – Yeah!   Thank you God for your goodness and provision, again!

10.   God is in CONTROL!  – Ok, yes, this sounds like the “super spiritual” answer, but I have to remind myself of this so many times during the day – like when I get frustrated watching Fox News with the things that are going on in our country and the people in our government who seem determined to drive this country into the dust, or when I get scared about something happening to the boys or to John, or when I look at our checking account and try to reconcile it to our budget and realize that diapers alone are costing us over $250 a month and that our food bill is off the charts and nowhere near what I’ve budgeted, or…  you get the picture.

I’m also thankful for music, NCIS, Veggie Tales, allrecipes.com, my blogs, my coworkers, my long-distance friends, my new jeans that fit so beautifully, Firefox and its crazy number of extensions, technology in general, HOPE (I’ll explain later) and the hope that it gives my family, my old church family, my comfy bed, my education, Microsoft (for Windows 7 and its awesome Office products) and oh so many other things….

Happy Thanksgiving!