As I'm sitting here in the wee morning hours of Thanksgiving, I am thinking of how different this holiday is going to be. Usually we have a houseful of people. Normally, I would be up at this time, and instead of typing, I would be preparing a turkey and a ham, with all of the trimmings. This year, we were blessed to be invited to Steve's nephew's home for the special day. Recovery has been very slow going after the surgery, and there was no way I would be able to perform my usual duties. How grateful we are for sweet nephews!
As thankful as I am, it still feels extremely strange not to be "doing" this morning. I enjoy the craziness and excitement of the day. If I let myself, I could shift my focus on that, and wail and lament about what I'm NOT doing this Thanksgiving, instead of what I AM doing today.
That can be a daily battle, when you think of it.
We can get so caught up in the disappointments and struggles of our daily lives that we lose sight of the good aspects of our situations. It's not always easy to see. Sometimes we have to hunt and search for the positive. It might just be a tiny thread of positivity, but it is there.
I've had to do some searching, lately, myself.
As I've been healing from the surgery, things were going nicely, and then BOOM, dizziness, low grade fever, night sweats, and nausea. My body began to let me know it didn't appreciate having the stent in it, placed there during surgery. A stent is a piece of coated wire, that extends from the kidney through the ureter and into the bladder. It is used to keep the "passageway" open. This is the fourth stent I've had...with the same symptoms occurring. This doesn't happen with everyone, but for some reason, my body just rebels against those things! Once they take it out...the symptoms disappear. In this case it is necessary to keep it in place for six weeks, to give my newly repaired ureter a support to heal around. (One more week to go!)
I've had to look for the good aspects of this situation. When I start to get bogged down in sickness and self pity, I have to search for the positive . This is not going to last forever. I only have __ weeks left. The stent is a good thing, and is helping me heal. I can use this time to focus on God's Love for me, and get closer to Him.
Do I FEEL like finding the good every day? To be honest, no! But I do it anyway. Because Satan would like nothing better than for me to have a grumbling, negative spirit. Grumbling, negative spirits don't look to God for the answer. They just focus on the situation. When you're only looking at your difficult circumstances, you're not looking at God. We have to seek the Divine Aspect out...and then keep our eyes fixed on it.
Jesus told us what to do.
Matthew 7:7 "Seek and you will find" and Matthew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
When you have to seek for something, it's not readily visible.
Sometimes God is not right in front of our eyes. Sometimes it is like a scavenger hunt...we have to do some investigating to find Him in our circumstances.. He is the Good. He is the Positive. He is the Helpful. And+ once we find Him, we find the reason to be thankful in all things.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment