Being grateful versus acknowledging a gift

2 Corinthians 9:8-11 (New American Standard Bible)

 ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

 ⁹as it is written,
         "HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR,
         HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER."

 ¹⁰Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness;

 ¹¹you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.

We've been having some great talks around here in the mornings about gratefulness and what it looks like, and this was the Scripture scheduled in our daily devotional the morning I started my 1000 gifts list--don't you love it when God does that?  :-)  I was thinking last night about this list I've started, and something occurred to me:  we often sit and think through what we're grateful for.  You know the drill--you're in Bible study and the question is asked, or at Thanksgiving when you go around the table before dinner.  There are lots of things in life we know we're "grateful" for.

    Somehow, though, making this list feels different to me.  Because it's not supposed to be a list of things I'm grateful for (yawn,) it's to be a list of the gifts God gives me.  While I'm cerebrally aware that everything in my life comes from God's hand, somehow thinking of the details as gifts causes a different sort of awareness of that fact.  Maybe because when I say, "Lord, thank you for this gift you've given me," I'm acknowledging that the specific thing I'm thankful for didn't just come into my life because I was in the right place at the right time, or because I worked really hard, or because a friend chose to bless me, or because I just happened to be born in America.  The baby in my arms, a thank-you card from my son, and yesterday morning's fog are all gifts, directly from my Daddy's hand.

How's your list coming?

23.  baby coos

24.  a friend to chat with in the nursing moms' room

25.  cinnamon brooms

26.  watching my friend's kids grow up--and loving them

27.  my daughter's gratefulness

28.  a teen who gets up early to complete schoolwork

29.  Classical Conversations :-)

30.  my son's band

31.  the piano music coming from his bedroom

32.  people encouraging my kids to live for God

33.  dinner at church

34.  lemon cake

35.  down comforter

36.  fall quilts

37.  new mirror

38.  time

8:02 AM - Sep. 24, 2009 - post comment