Thankful Thursday

Today is my thankful Thursday post. I never thought
about what a ungrateful person I am until I starting
writing a post about being thankful. When I sit
here at my keyboard and try to come up with something
to be thankful for, sometimes my list of complaints is
a lot longer than the thankful list.

Today, I am just going to quote a book that has ministered
to me so many times. It spoke to me when I was a young
mother trying to figure out this mothering business and now it speaks
to me as I try to figure out this grand mothering business .

One of my heros has always been Ruth Bell Graham, I have loved
Gigi Graham Tchividjian too. This book is called Mothers Together.

"Satan would like nothing better than to discourage us wives and mothers.
He would like nothing better than to have us so burdened by the everyday
details of life that we forget the blessings. To cause us to feel
insignificant and to make us believe that our efforts are of
little importance in the great scheme of things."
Gigi writes,

" My thoughts drifted back to a time when Stephen and I were
living in the Middle East. We didn't have all the modern conveniences that
I had been accustomed to, so we made do. I did not have a washer
or dryer, so each morning I placed a large pot of water on the stove
to boil. I put the baby's diapers in this pot then rinsed them and
hung them on the line to dry. I washed the sheets,
towels, and clothing in the bathtub and would ask Stephan to help me wring
out the larger items. A visiting friend returned home and told my mother.
I will never forget her next letter She wrote expressing her
concern for me and for the responsibilities I carried, but she added,
"I am so thankful that you have clothes to wash and hands and soap
with which to wash them."

"Thankfulness. This is not only God's perspective, but His will
for us, He says, "Be ye thankful." (Col. 3:15) and "In everything
give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you." (1 Thess 5:18)

When I read that portion I was so shocked that any mother could say that
to her daughter, but as the years have gone by, I have learned the wisdom of
those words. Sometimes it costs me so much to have to tell my children the hard things
but today I read this "Love is not merely a gentle touch or a pat on the head.
It is a refiner's fire. It burns to purify." (The Mark of a Man. p. 143)
Love always costs something. I know how thankful I have been
as I look back at all of the times God has told me "no." I am
thankful today for all of the hard things that have been given as
a gift to purify me I pray today, they will continue to make me better
and not bitter.
Happy Thursday!