Reason #944
Aaron had dinner ready when I got home tonight. After a jam packed day, I was thankful that I could come home, change clothes, and eat. We eat dinner at home every night, and normally I don't mind cooking. But today was one of those days when I'd rather go without than have to cook. Aaron called to see when I would be leaving work, and he mentioned that he had started dinner and would have it done when I got home. I didn't ask, and I didn't even expect it, but I most certainly appreciated it.
Sometimes we overlook the small stuff. Maybe it's because we expect it, and so we forget to be grateful for it. We think, "Well of course that should happen. Of course I should have that. Of course I should get my way." And we don't show appreciation because we feel like it's deserved. We feel like we've been good enough, done good enough, or are good enough that our expectations should be met. And so we simply glaze by all of the little blessings God pours out on us on a daily basis because we expect it. We expect to wake up every morning. We expect to go to our jobs. We expect to have our health. We expect that our family will be at home at the end of the day, and we expect things to play out as planned. We don't wake up in the morning and wonder if the sun will rise. We fully expect it to. It's risen every day since we've been alive, so why would it not? We expect the Lord to love us and provide for us on a daily basis because, well, we're His. We've committed our lives to Him, and we try our best to live for Him, so we expect that things go well for us each day. We expect the people around us to be kind and polite towards us because we, ourselves, do our best to treat them the way we would like to be treated. We expect people to praise us when we do good things. We expect the Lord to forgive us when we ask for forgiveness, and we expect Him to be our Helper in our time of need.
But how often do we say 'thank you' for the expected? Do we wake up each morning and thank Him for the fact that we're alive and the sun came up? Do we thank Him that we're healthy and employed and have a home to come to at the end of every day? Do we thank Him for giving us family to spend our evenings with or for the friends who give us encouragement? Do we thank Him for forgiveness or just simply ask for it? Do we thank Him for being our provider or do we just ask when we need something? Do we thank God for being our helper, our healer, and our protector, or do we just assume that He must know we're grateful so there's no need to actually say it? Or, do we just expect these things? Are they things we believe we should have because of who we are? Do we view it all as a packaged deal that we received when we chose to follow Christ?
We should not only be thankful, we should say it. The truth is, even if you expect it, it doesn't mean you deserve it. I would hope Aaron knew I appreciated him preparing dinner for us tonight even if I didn't say it, but I made sure to voice it so that there was no question about it. After all, who doesn't appreciate hearing thank you? Who doesn't like to know that their efforts are appreciated rather than simply expected? Of course, the Lord knows your heart. He does know you're grateful, but spoken words are powerful and He loves to hear from you. He loves to bless you, to do good things for you, to support you and encourage you, and be everything you need Him to be. So thank Him. Thank Him with your heart and thank Him with your words. He never tires of hearing from you.
#944 - For all of the expected things He does for us that He doesn't have to do.
"O God, we give glory to you all day long and constantly praise your name." - Psalm 44:8
Sometimes we overlook the small stuff. Maybe it's because we expect it, and so we forget to be grateful for it. We think, "Well of course that should happen. Of course I should have that. Of course I should get my way." And we don't show appreciation because we feel like it's deserved. We feel like we've been good enough, done good enough, or are good enough that our expectations should be met. And so we simply glaze by all of the little blessings God pours out on us on a daily basis because we expect it. We expect to wake up every morning. We expect to go to our jobs. We expect to have our health. We expect that our family will be at home at the end of the day, and we expect things to play out as planned. We don't wake up in the morning and wonder if the sun will rise. We fully expect it to. It's risen every day since we've been alive, so why would it not? We expect the Lord to love us and provide for us on a daily basis because, well, we're His. We've committed our lives to Him, and we try our best to live for Him, so we expect that things go well for us each day. We expect the people around us to be kind and polite towards us because we, ourselves, do our best to treat them the way we would like to be treated. We expect people to praise us when we do good things. We expect the Lord to forgive us when we ask for forgiveness, and we expect Him to be our Helper in our time of need.
But how often do we say 'thank you' for the expected? Do we wake up each morning and thank Him for the fact that we're alive and the sun came up? Do we thank Him that we're healthy and employed and have a home to come to at the end of every day? Do we thank Him for giving us family to spend our evenings with or for the friends who give us encouragement? Do we thank Him for forgiveness or just simply ask for it? Do we thank Him for being our provider or do we just ask when we need something? Do we thank God for being our helper, our healer, and our protector, or do we just assume that He must know we're grateful so there's no need to actually say it? Or, do we just expect these things? Are they things we believe we should have because of who we are? Do we view it all as a packaged deal that we received when we chose to follow Christ?
We should not only be thankful, we should say it. The truth is, even if you expect it, it doesn't mean you deserve it. I would hope Aaron knew I appreciated him preparing dinner for us tonight even if I didn't say it, but I made sure to voice it so that there was no question about it. After all, who doesn't appreciate hearing thank you? Who doesn't like to know that their efforts are appreciated rather than simply expected? Of course, the Lord knows your heart. He does know you're grateful, but spoken words are powerful and He loves to hear from you. He loves to bless you, to do good things for you, to support you and encourage you, and be everything you need Him to be. So thank Him. Thank Him with your heart and thank Him with your words. He never tires of hearing from you.
#944 - For all of the expected things He does for us that He doesn't have to do.
"O God, we give glory to you all day long and constantly praise your name." - Psalm 44:8
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