thankful thursday revisited

the past few weeks i've been trying to teach samantha about being thankful. thankful for more than just the things that are so easy to be thankful for and things that we have made a habit of being thankful for such as, "dear Jesus, thank you for this day, thank you for this food..." this thankfulness endeavor started when she started complaining too much. so every time she'd whine or complain i told her we were going to think of something that we were thankful for instead. simple enough huh? instead of complaining that she didn't have the new barbie, she could be thankful for aaaalllllllllllllllllll the toys that she does have.

never would i have thought that God would turn around and tell me to do the same thing. yes, i do realize how much i have to be thankful for, but today He told me to be thankful for the things that i'm not so thankful for.

ben was home today. there was nothing for him to do at work, so he got the day off. now usually i'm not flustered when he's home, but there are certain days when he's home it seems like i have 2 additional kids to look after. and it was worse today because i needed to do stuff (laundry, cleaning, etc.) around the house.

he was playing with the kids and watching tv most of the time that i was doing my chores but then i found myself picking up after him and finishing the tasks that he had started, or rather cleaning up the messes that he had made.

after lunch i put ryan down for his nap and continued my laundry while ben was watching a tv show. i finished my tasks and went to watch tv with ben and found him asleep under a blanket on the couch. "really?" i thought, "you're doing the same thing that our 17 month old BABY is doing right now!"

then i went into the kitchen and discovered 2 more un-picked-up messes that ben left. as me and my grumbling attitude were cleaning up it was as if God whispered "instead of complaining, what can you be thankful about ben staying home today?" man.... there are just some days i don't want to be taught anything, but i started thinking of reasons why i was happy ben was home today. and as i started naming them off, i kept thinking of more and more reasons to be thankful. and in the whole process my attitude totally changed.

so now i am sitting here in the living room, looking at my husband who is STILL fast asleep on the couch despite the loud noise of the kids playing in their room, and i am thankful that he's home today. i'm thankful that he's not driving a long drive home in his car right now especially since we are supposed to be getting freezing rain and the roads could be hazardous. i'm thankful that he got to stay home and play with the kids today because they enjoyed spending time together so much. i'm thankful that he's home and gets to take a nap today because he works so hard for us. i'm thankful that he's home when a couple of my friends have husbands that are deployed right now.

so try it out next time you aren't quite so thankful about something. you might find out that you really are! and don't miss my previous post to see what else i was thankful for today! :-)