Covered in Yuck

A couple of the little people in my life had lots of fun playing with shaving foam recently. It got everywhere....despite the fact that I only put it on 3 trays. But man! The fun they had!!!

But it got me thinking about how I get myself covered in 'yuck' ...and it's not a fun yuck.

When I deliberately avoid eye contact with someone so I don't have to talk to them....when someone tells me a story and I have to top their's with my own rather than just listening and letting them have the limelight...when I lose my temper over something very trivial....when I judge someone before I have even heard their story...when I am fearful....when I speak before thinking.....when I make a snide remark - and that's just this week's YUCK!

How easily we weigh ourselves down with YUCK....with sin.

But how thankful I am that I can go to God and seek forgiveness and ask for His help to do better. And how gracious He is to answer that prayer with love and patience and His divine power.

As the week heads to a close and a new month starts, I pray there will be less YUCK covering me.

T-H-A-N-K-S

I am thinking and writing about thanking people this week....and have appreciated the kind feedback from a few of you about the posts. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment - it is an encouragement -  and for reading the blog.

Being the creative writer I am (not!) I came up with an acronym to help us do thanking better.... 

Thank God....each morning and night and anytime in between. He is the One to whom we have the most to be thankful for, so don't allow Him to be the One who misses out on well-deserved thanks. He's also the One who can help us pay more attention to 'thanks opportunities' throughout the day, so ask Him for help to do that too.

Have a goal of 5 "thank you"s a day. Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience talks about thanking your husband 4 times a day, so those of us who are married only have to look for 1 other 'thanks' to utter each day...right? I say 'wrong' and reckon 4 'thank-yous' to our husband = 1 out of the 5 (but then I have never been good at maths!) Anyway, get creative with the thanks. It could be face-to-face, or via phone or a text or an email or a card or aerial sign writing or....

Attitude of gratitude - develop one. When we are wide-eyed with wonder at the good stuff in our lives, it makes saying thanks easier.

Notice what people are doing and acknowledge it. We get so busy...so self-focussed...so tired...that we sometimes miss the gifts we are given throughout the day. So make the effort to see the small stuff too. Things like....

• a friend who calls to say hello ('Hey...thanks for the call. Good to hear your voice.') 
• your son taking out the bin ('I appreciate your help honey...thanks.')
• the parcel delivery man ('This is hard work in the heat...thanks!')

Kind words are not easily forgotten but sadly, they are not often used. Be different in this world that says 'Get what you can, your way and too bad about the rest.'

Set the example for others, especially your kids. I am really conscious with this in raising Little j and so I say to him as we leave the grocery shop, "Say good bye to the lady and 'thanks for helping us'." Yesterday I thanked the video shop lady like this too....and she looked at me funny, but I don't care. The library lady liked it! And so did the postman.

Feel free to develop your own acronym....and if you do...let me know what it is...thanks!

What 'Thanks' Says

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, 

and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  

~G.K. Chesterton

Well said G.K.! I agree whole heartedly.

Here's why....

When we thank others we are saying - (read these slowly:)

• You are appreciated...valued...worthwhile 
• Your contribution to my life is important, meaningful, a gift  
• Your effort is appreciated, and so are your thoughtfulness and kindness, your hard work and creativity 
• Your generosity is a Godsend 
• I have noticed you 
• I value you 
• I love you and your work.

Our thanks can encourage, uplift, settle, rescue, bless and honour others. We have the power of life (and death) with our tongues so how about using thanks genuinely, frequently, widely and graciously? Today.

A Bug Bear

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you may have come across a post (or 2) with thankfulness in it. It seems to be a theme of my life and something I like to hear (and let's hope, do.)

I have a couple of precious teenaged girls who take 3 seconds to thank me after every lesson I teach. That's so nice.

I have a dear friend who says 'thanks so much' often for things I think mean little, but to her they have been a Godsend.

I have a husband generous with gratefulness and wow! that makes a huge difference in my day. To know that I am appreciated (and the things I do are too) by the one I love, is very sweet.

I have a little boy, who with a fair bit of coaxing, can say a 'ta' at the right time. It's cute...and he's going to get better at it...I hope.

So I do have many 'thanks-yous' going on in my life. But perhaps that's what makes the absence of a 'thanks' so obvious to me....and sadly, so annoying.  There have been a couple of situations in the past month or so when there has been a distinct absence of 'thanks' despite a big effort from me. And I don't like it. 

Yesterday I was about to launch into a diatribe to someone about the failings of others to say 'thanks' but I held my tongue. And as I thought about the situations over the past 16 hours, I realised I don't have to gossip about them....and I don't even have to let them get me worked up. I can just 'let it go.'*

And here's why.....because the One I follow and want to be like, faced this same situation - day after day after day..... And I am told that anything I go through that He experienced should be considered 'pure joy.'

Think about it....Jesus spent His life GIVING to others - giving time and effort and energy and emotional strength and healing and miracles and wisdom and and and..........and the ones He gave to, on the whole, never said thanks. In fact many that He gave to were the ones calling for Him to be crucified!

So I am thankful that being spit on or ignored or killed are not what I have experienced from the ones who neglect to say thanks.

And I am thankful that God is refining me in so many ways....including this one of gratitude.

But stay tuned....I have to more to say...thanks:)


* Hey...this is GREAT advice for all the struggles, dilemmas, annoyances I face!!!

Well Said

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.....

Hmmmm...sad to say that it has been a lean season for patience of late.

I think I am one of the most impatient people I know...hang around me long enough and you'll probably agree.

My latest battles with impatience have been over our house building epic (not quite to lock up yet) and dealing with a toddler who has authority issues (okay...so I am prone to exaggeration, but it does try my patience when Little j does not listen to Mummy.)

Anyway, I have moaned and groaned and whinged and whined and expressed my frustrations to God...to friends....to family...really to anyone who stopped still long enough to listen.

But is was a sweet, smart Godly lady who I have only spoken to a handful of times, who gave me the timely reminder in the middle of Best & Less the other day.

I was venting and saying how God obviously thinks I need more patience and she simply said, "Well anything that helps us become more like Jesus..."

She's right! That's the point, purpose, plan of my life. To become more like Jesus. And you know what, the easy-peasy seasons are not the ones where that happens. It is the seasons where we have to cling to God and rely on Him for wisdom and patience and peace and self-control and love and ......

And so in this season when patience seems to be a virtue I am sadly lacking, I need to remember that the One with bucket loads of it, is wanting to teach me, train me, change me and see me become more like His Son.