DAILY BYTEAre there people in your life that you find it seemingly impossible to give thanks for? Has anyone ever hurt you or offended you to the point that you find them unworthy of thanksgiving?
I spent Thanksgiving one year with a table full of family, including a boy of about twelve years old, whom I will call Andy. As my family members went around the table, sharing with one another things for which they were thankful, we were all keenly aware that some people were missing from the table, including Andy’s mother. She had a terrible addiction that had caused she and her husband to separate. We all knew the stories of how Andy had had to endure a drunk-driving accident that could have killed him and his sister both, and we knew how such behavior had caused him, understandably, to become very upset with her at times.
Well, as we started going around the table, each person taking moments to express thanks for the time together, the food, family, and friends, Andy’s turn came. As he sat quietly, looking down at his plate, much to our surprise, he looked up and said, “I’m thankful for my mother.”
He had clearly thought about this before. I will never forget that out of all the people and things in his life he could have chosen, he chose to give thanks for the one person in his life that had caused more division and pain than any other person.
Andy’s mother may never know that he gave thanks for her. This event happened years ago, and she still suffers from addiction. But, God knows that her life is a life for which we can be thankful. And in praying those words of thanks, Andy acknowledged to himself, to our family, and to God that his mother was more than a life-zapping, nameless person consumed with addiction. He saw and named someone who had given him life, someone in whom God was working, even if we could not see how, and someone to whom he desired to give life in return.
Andy’s prayer of thanks brought a whole new perspective, turning our vision of something for which it seemed impossible to give thanks, into a person, a child of God, who has brought life into the world.
We do not live in a void. We live in world among broken people, including ourselves. For what or whom might you find it difficult to give thanks for today?
GUIDING SCRIPTURE
Psalm 57:9
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE…
Write a letter today to someone for whom you find it difficult to give thanks. Even if you do not send this letter, offer it up as a prayer to God for that person and for yourself, as you seek to struggle lovingly with the relationship.
