Thanks in Place of Complaints

Ok, so I started with all these reasons to be thankful but have only found myself complaining all the more.  I'm sure Satan is having a blast yanking me around as I take steps to grow and better myself.  This morning I told God that I feel like the Israelites.  For all that God had been to them, they still strayed to other gods, they still feared, they still cursed Him and when God offered them everything, they still demanded their own will.  I've read through the OT and at so many points have found myself so ticked at these guys!  Seriously, AGAIN?!?!?  But, isn't that how we all really are?  At least, I know that's true for myself.  I don't like it and recognize it is a problem so, sticking with the thanksgiving, knowing that in EVERYTHING I am to give Him THANKS, I am turning my complaints into moments of thanksgiving.  Some of these things will be a huge stretch for me and for anyone who has done any working out, you know stretching is important but can be painful.  But in the end, it is so much better that you do.  


This list will be a growing list.  So, stop back in from time to time and see what other complaint-turned-thanksgiving I've added.

    1. Thank you that my births have been painful and have left me broken hearted.  In my pain, I am a broken vessel to show your miracle of healing.

   2. Thank you that my baby died in my last birth.  In his death, You and only You can take all glory for his resurrection and his total healing.

    3. Thank you for 6 spirits that have left my womb and gone to you.  I have learned that You truly do love me and through their short lives, have been stepping stones in bringing me closer to you.  That through their loss, I have been able to give to others compassion, love and counsel.  That I have been an open voice to a world that wants to forget those lost.

   4. Thank you that money is so tight for us.  Through our financial hardship, You are teaching us how to be frugal and wiser with what we do have.

   5.  Thank you for dreams that seem out of our reach.  It means that we have to rely totally on you to achieve those dreams.  That those dreams are NOT out of YOUR reach.  That if those dreams come to pass, that they will have been not just our dreams but Your dreams FOR us.  Those dreams would be really gifts.


   6.  Thank you for vigorous life-filled hands beating toys against newly painted walls.  Little hands that are not rotting with the decay of death; little hands that are not limp and lifeless because of brain damage.  Thank you once more for my precious baby boy.  Thank you once more and not enough for all of my children, held and unheld.


   7.   Thank you for searing sun and rain filled clouds and beautiful black-brown soil to help dig me out of my dark of depression and remind me of the joys of living outside in the nature that You created and gave for us to enjoy in our time here on Earth.


   8.  Thank you for mothers that mother me as I walk motherless and in pain.  Through them I see You answering my prayer for You to ultimately mother me so that I can see how to mother my own children.