7 Years

Today has been seven years since the first Th(i)nkful post was published!!

https://thinkful.blog/2017/05/07/first-blog-post/

There have now been 35,705 views in 134 countries!! Praise God! I had no idea that God would be able to use something like this for His glory. Praise Him forever!!

Background

The reason we celebrate anniversaries is usually to help us remember. Take the Passover for example and how God wanted the children of Israel to remember – so He told them to celebrate every year.

In 2016 David and I had a great sorrow.

We had purchased and fixed up a tiny little cottage in the Northwoods of Wisconsin close to a Christian university where we envisioned that we would spend our remaining days serving the Lord by training tomorrow’s Christian leaders. BUT, that was not God’s vision for our future. He closed that school down. We were left with having to sell our little home and discover through the Shepherd’s guidance what next steps He had for us. Now eight years down the road we can see at least part of the reason. He wanted us back in southern Africa. There was more for us to do.

But back then, it was hard and we felt low. I remember distinctly that the Lord impressed upon me that I needed to be thankful even in my pain. It catapulted me into researching what it meant in the Scriptures to obey those commands of giving thanks in everything, in all circumstances. Our emotions were urging us to discouragement and even despair, but meditating on our faithful God and His ways began to upend the heaviness. Our eyes were pulled upward to get a different perspective. This life is not what it is all about. This life is a vapor James tells us in 4:14. We are headed to a Celestial City where all will be set right (Hebrews 13:14).

“Receive every inward and outward trouble, every disappointment, pain, uneasiness, temptation, darkness, and desolation, with both thy hands, as a true opportunity and blessed occasion of dying to self, and entering into a fuller fellowship with thy self-denying, suffering Saviour.”

William Law, 17-Century Puritan

God was teaching me to choose to think thanks for all things that come my way. He was shaping me to be more conformed to the image of His Son, and He may use any means that He sees fit to accomplish that task. It is good.

As I now accumulate more and more days under my belt and get closer to the finishing line, whether by death or the rapture, I am becoming convinced that every minute is a gift and only as we discern the Father’s will and delight in doing it with thankfulness do we truly live without regrets.

One thing I can say from experience is that writing out my thinkful list every evening has become easy and delightful. It’s not hard at all. God is so good to us. His character, promises and sovereignty are trustworthy and dependable.

“God is faithful“

I Corinthians 10:13

Enablers

These are our children. They are all grown now, but such a joy in our lives. Our son Nicolas is the one who encouraged me to start the blog to see if there would be any interest in reading on this topic. Our daughter Stephanie is the one who helped me create the word “th(i)nkful.”

But the one who has tirelessly helped me the most is my beloved husband David. He edits every one of these blog posts and gives input.

Looking Ahead

So, looking forward in time, I want to maybe publish a Th(i)nkful book, if God wills. Maybe it can be a tool God further uses to inspire people to cultivate thinking thanks in whatever situation they find themselves.

God’s Word lays out the exhortation.

“giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Ephesians 5:20

“give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

I Thessalonians 5:18

What About You?

How are your thinkful neural pathways doing? Have you established a pattern that is easy to maintain because you consistently follow God’s command? Are you reflecting to others the Lord Jesus Christ by the way you process things that come your way?

One way to start that process is to get a little journal and every day write a few things down for which you think thanks to God. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Maybe a minute or two.

If you like, you could get one of these African thinkful journals, made locally here, but you don’t need a fancy leather one. You could just get a cheap one. You just need space to write a few things down.

Example

Grace is my friend and co-worker in the gospel. She asked me about four years ago if I would hold her accountable every week to think thanks. So every Monday we send each other a text with a list of things that we are thankful for. Most times when I finish reading her list I am so full of praise myself. Her example is contagious and very becoming. I think thanks to God for Grace.

God’s Book of Remembrance

Did you know that God wrote a remembrance journal?

“Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. ‘They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.’”

Malachi 3:16-17

How beautiful to think of the Lord listening to us talk to each other of how we are thankful for Him!

Let’s be known for thinking thanks for all God is doing and has done. He is greatly to be praised!!

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.”

Psalm 145:3-4