As I was contemplating this year, what to write for the annual Thanksgiving article, my mind was drawing a blank.  Not because I am a selfish, thankless, self-absorbed person – or at least I hope not to be, but because I feel like I count my blessings with the same generic answers every year without truly understanding the whys and how of what I am truly thankful for.  Thank you for my family, my health, my job, and my friends, the end. 

Trust me, I could not even begin to imagine my life without each of these necessary people or components intact.  But I wanted to be more specific this season.  I wanted to really sit down and contemplate the things that God has blessed me with yet that I take for granted.  This sense of urgency to show God why I am so very thankful for what He has given me and done for me and others around me was also compounded with a week of events where every time I turned around, there seemed to be a piece of bad news waiting. 

First, there was a friend of my husband’s family that was hit in a hit and run accident.  He survived and is still in critical condition, but his girlfriend sadly passed away.  Then we found out that the aunt of a close friend of ours was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and does not have much longer to live.  This woman has been in good health, has 3 children and a wonderful marriage.  Then came the news that my husband’s uncle had died of a heart attack.  He was only in his mid-60’s and he too had an incredible marriage, a son, and a grandchild.   A friend of mine had a miscarriage while she was 4 1/2 months  into her pregnancy.  Another friend of mine’s grandmother is on life support and not expected to make it.  It was if bomb after bomb was delivered within a week’s period.  Why are all these bad things happening around us and how in the world can this breed a heart of understanding, much less a heart of thanksgiving? 

Then I came across several quotes and Bible verses in my quest to make sense of this all and they changed my perspective completely:

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Psalm 27:14
“Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.” Psalm 147:5
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Psalm 55:22
“We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties.”  ~Oswald Chambers
“For it is in giving that we receive.” ~St. Francis of Assisi
“Everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.”  ~Leo Tolstoy
"Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”  ~Mother Teresa
“I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.”  ~Helen Keller 

This hodgepodge of wisdom encompasses everything that I was trying myself to work through and really see where the hand of God was and is.  So I decided to try an exercise and hopefully by sharing it with you will not only solidify it in my mind, but will encourage you to maybe take the same step this Thanksgiving holiday.  I decided to write down a list of the things I was thankful for – no matter how silly or trivial, how off the wall or even how commonplace they might seem.  They somehow all brought me to the realization that we have a God who cares and can show Himself in any venue, in any circumstance and who wants to show us joy and how much He cares even in the small things in life. 

Even through the midst of times when I don’t understand why certain instances occur or I have no inkling of what God’s plans or reasonings are, I can look at my list and know that He is in control and that He is a God who cares about every little detail of our life.  And even though His timeline may look different than ours, He truly does see the entire picture and so in this, I can rest. Renee’s top twenty-five random thoughts of thankfulness to God: 

1)      Thank You for the color pink.  When I look at something pink, my mind turns sweeter –  I think of happiness, peacefulness, and anything remotely girlie. 

2)      Thank You for Anderson Cooper’s book “Dispatches from the Edge.”  It helped to inspire and remind me that there are hurting people all across the globe and that there are also people who are reaching out to them to help.

3)      Thank You for my friend Amy, who sent me an email letting me know that she and her family are going to lift me and AFC up in prayer at dinnertime once a month.  Thank You for her interest, concern, love and support.

4)      Thank You for the fires that my husband builds on cold nights (in the fireplace of course).  They bring out such a contented side to my life. 

5)      Thank You for a husband whose own excitement reminds me to take joy in the little moments in life, such as these fireplaces, thunderstorms, running, eating fruit, and of course watching the San Antonio Spurs win.  And thank You that I found my best friend.

6)      Thank You for my other friend Amy, whom I call my second self.  A friend who I can share my innermost thoughts with and not feel judged.

7)      Thank You for exercise.  Thank You that it provides an outlet for me when I feel down, sad, or stressed. 

8)      Thank You for food and the ability to cook.  My second most favorite stress-reliever.

9)      Thank You for allowing our bodies to feel physical pain.  Without it, how else would our bodies know how to tell us that something is bad or hurting us?

10)  Thank You for music.  A familiar song or tune that reminds me of You, love, or happy times.

11)  Thank You for the ability to dream and dream big.  Thank You for the desires and gifts you have placed within me.

12)  Thank You for my family’s unending support and wisdom, their unconditional love and encouragement.

13)  Thank You for the taste of hot chocolate on a cold day, for the smell of winter, and for the feel of a warm fleece blanket wrapped around me.

14)  Thank You for the sound of the words “I love you” being said by those I love the most in the world.

15)  Thank You for email and allowing it to let me connect to those people I never get to talk to or see.

16)  Thank You for allowing me to see that nothing is a surprise to you.  You have been, are, and always will be.

17)  Thank You for the movies 21 Grams, Traffic, When A Man Loves A Woman, Babel, Beyond Borders, Crash, Friends With Money, The Passion of The Christ, Under the Tuscan Sun, A Walk To Remember, and The United States of Leland.  Thank You for letting me learn lessons from each and every one of these movies.  (These are not recommendations, by the way, just movies that have taught me throughout various times of my life.)

18)  Thank You for the ability, desires, and freedom to learn whatever we want. 

19)  Thank You for Africa.  Thank You for the beautiful people of Africa, the amazing landscape of Africa, the things You have taught me through Africa over the past two years.

20)  Thank You for the people in the public eye who are bringing attention to the needs of the world.  People like George Clooney, Bono, Angelina Jolie, Ann Currie, and Anderson  Cooper.

21)  Thank You for the type of laughter that makes you feel as if your heart or stomach will explode from smiling and giggling so much.

22)  Thank You for the big oak tree that is on our street that is lit with Christmas lights over the next months.  It truly brings a smile to my face every night that I see it.

23)  Thank You for cheese, doritos, and coke. And for the ability to taste all three.

24)  Thank You for YOU.  Thank You for teaching me this year about Your gentleness, Your intellect, Your joy, and Your loyalty.

25)  Thank you for Your Son.  For Jesus.  For only having to be saved by grace and from nothing else.  For faith.  To believe.   All I need is YOU.