Choosing Thankfulness

Well friends, it's been one of those weeks. After throwing myself on the couch yesterday afternoon after a loooong day of Christmas parties with 4th graders, I felt torn. Part of me wanted to complain about a week of fighting a fever/virus, being buried in work to do (both at home and at work), and the fact that I was involved in a little fender bender yesterday morning. Then, the Holy Spirit gently whispered all these sweet reminders of blessings I've received this past week. It was a weird feeling of being torn, smack in the middle between bitterness and gratefulness. It sounds cliche, but in that moment, I knew I had a choice. 

By no power of my own, I chose to thank the Lord for all of the blessings this past week. I started at the beginning: 

• I thanked God that my fever never reached 102 degrees. This is the temperature that I have read becomes dangerous for the baby. My main worry last week with my fever was hurting baby girl and she is all good. 
• I thanked Him for a field trip last week that ran smoothly, with all of my awesome chaperones there and ready to help our class have a great time. 
• I thanked Him for administration that cares about the well being of their employees...I showed up to a meeting last week, pale as a ghost, with red puffy eyes. The sickness had gotten the best of my emotions and I had a mini breakdown moment while the kids were at lunch...minutes before an important meeting (embarrassing). Even though there were numerous teachers out for various reasons, and there would not be a sub available to cover my class, I was sent home for the rest of the day and the next day to rest and get better. 
• I thanked Him for how minor the car accident I was in yesterday morning on my way to work was. I had just left the grocery store getting some Christmas treats for the kiddos and a car pulled out in front of me. Neither one of us were driving fast so there was no airbag or anything like that. Both of us were completely fine, and even though there's some (minor) damage to my car, and this messes up our Christmas travel plans a bit, it could have been so much worse. Baby girl is still moving around and I have absolutely no soreness, so we are fine. 
• I thanked Him for not getting anything done yesterday...my plan was to get a bunch of papers graded while my class watched "The Grinch." This didn't happen, but for the very sweetest reasons. I had some cute little girls who wanted to talk about Queen Elsa, braid my hair like hers, color me pictures, and give me a shoulder massage during the movie. While we were sitting there, some asked me questions about Jesus (not kidding). While I may not get to openly preach the gospel at my job, I certainly will honestly answer legitimate questions, so I'm always thrilled when students start that conversation. 

At about this time, I dozed off on the couch, mid-prayer (haha). When I woke up, I found a pretty brown paper packaged tied up with string (you're singing the song right now, aren't you?). A sweet friend of mine had dropped off a Christmas gift. After thanking the Lord for even more blessings, I felt so empowered. When we choose thankfulness, the enemy loses. The enemy's goal is to bring us down, to make us tired and ineffective, and especially to make us bitter. However, when we choose thankfulness, we get the victory and God gets the glory. That's a win all around, don'tcha think? I have a lot to learn on this matter, but surely with His power in me (and with a lot of ups and downs), I'll get it! 

What can you thank God for when things don't go as planned?

Thanks for reading!

xx,

Court