A Thankful Heart

Stop and consider what you did just this morning. Were you able to throw your legs over the side of the bed and get up? Did your eyes eventually focus so that you could make your way to the coffee pot? Once the coffee had perked were you able to pick up your cup and allow the warm liquid to slide down your throat? Did you greet your family with your words? Are you breathing on your own without the aid of a pipe down your throat? All of these functions are gifts of God that we don’t often consider – unless they are taken from us.

A family friend has recently suffered a stroke and has lost many of the abilities that I just listed. To be able to think a thought but unable to speak it must be so frustrating. Depending on others to move you about is surely a difficult position to be in. How often do we thank the Lord even for the ability to work? It seems that our society is always bemoaning the fact that they have to work. People are always looking to the weekend, or fussing about laundry that has to be finished. Elisabeth Elliot says this about work – “Work is a blessing. [YES! A BLESSING!] God has so arranged the world that work is necessary, and He gives us hands and strength to do it. The enjoyment of leisure would be nothing if we had only leisure. It is the joy of work well done that enables us to enjoy rest, just as it is the experiences of hunger and thirst that make food and drink such pleasures. ”

Whatever you find yourself doing today stop and think about the blessing it is do have the ability to do it. We never know when that could be taken from us. Work hard today and thank the Lord for the hunger and thirst that it creates, as well as the ability to eat and drink to satisfy that desire!