Gratitude Lists

 

I can remember a lot of Thanksgiving dinners.  When I was growing up, a lot of our Thanksgivings seemed to begin quite early in the morning, followed by a four- or five-hour car drive to a relative’s house followed by a wait of a few hours for Thanksgiving dinner.

I’m not sure if I was literally starving to death by the time we sat down to the meal, but it seemed as though I was getting close.  It was at this point, that someone launched into the longest prayer of the year, blessing the food and thanking God for all of the things they could think of to thank Him for.

I like to think that I was a thankful child.  I certainly always said thank-you and if you asked me to list things I was thankful for, I would have had no trouble listing ten things.  Being as spiritually minded as I was, those would have included being thankful for the Bible, Sunday School teachers, and freedom of worship. 

And yet, I wasn’t thankful enough to want to spend a whole lot of time listing out those things when I was hungry and there was good food set before me.

Beyond all this, my young mind told me this sort of pause could be dangerous.  Who knew how long it would take for salmonella to start to grow or some other dreadful malady?  There are many food borne illnesses in this world and most of them come because food sat out too long before people ate it.

I wonder how thankful most of us are.  I know that if asked, we all could make a Gratitude List and put more than 20 items on it and yet, when I talk to people, I sense that they are a lot more focused on the negative aspects of their lives than the good things.

I once worked with a surgeon who asked me, “What is the enemy of good?”

I was used to questions having to do with various diseases and naming various items of anatomy and so this question came out of the blue.  “I guess evil,” I said, uncertain of where we were going with this conversation.

“No, no, no!”  He said in reply.  “The enemy of good is better.  Never forget it!”

The problem is that as we imagine how our life situation or finances could improve, we rob the present of enjoyment.  Contentment is something that gives us everything without a major change in life circumstances.

The Apostle Paul said, “In everything give thanks…” (I Thessalonians 5:18)

The point is not that we give thanks for the suffering in our lives, although God can work even that for our good, but that we continue to count blessings, even on our darkest days.  Gratitude Lists are sure to lift our spirits, simply by shifting our focus from the things we lack to the innumerable blessings that pepper our lives.

Trouble in the Coop

 

“Dr. Waldron,” the lady sitting across from me said.  “I’m just so worried.  I’m having trouble sleeping at night.”

“Really?”  I asked.  “What are you worried about?”

“Well,” she said.  “It feels kind of silly to talk about, but my chickens aren’t laying many eggs these days.  They’ve been real good chickens for me – they’re Red Star Chickens – but I wonder if their days are numbered.  I just can’t afford to feed them if they aren’t laying eggs.”

“Maybe they are going into hen-o-pause,” I suggested.

“I haven’t heard of that,” she responded.  “Is that a thing chickens do, and do they come out of it?”

I am no master of chicken husbandry, but I did my best to assuage her fears.  “I’m guessing they are just molting,” I said.  “Egg production drops for a couple of months and then it picks back up.  I guess you’ll just have to decide if you are OK with fewer eggs for a month or two.”

She shook her head.  “Even if they start laying again, I can see the writing on the wall.  There will come a time when they stop completely and that makes me sad.  They’re such pretty chickens and I almost feel like we have a friendship.”

It was an unusual conversation.  Many people have deep sadness when a dog or cat dies, but few have deep spiritual connections with their chickens.  Still, anxiety leads to folks borrowing trouble from the future to put onto today’s already full plate.

Jesus told His followers, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”  (Matthew 6:34)

The point of the proverb is not that tomorrow won’t have troubles and difficulties.  In fact, it probably will.  It just isn’t helpful to stress about them ahead of time.

When I was growing up, we had a food pyramid that purported to show what foods you should include in your diet and the amounts of each one – fats and oils were in a tiny triangle at the top and grains at the bottom. 

Apparently, this concept was too confusing for children of the 90s, because in 2011, the pyramid was replaced with “My Plate” which had sections for dairy, fruits, grains, vegetables, and protein.  Scientists thought this would be better at helping folks understand how they should eat (I don’t actually think it has helped – people eat the same whether they picture a plate or a pyramid).

The point really is that if we view our day as a plate with sections – work, play, sleep, and so on, the section that contains trouble (call it stress if you like) is already full.  Sure, you can stack more on top of it.  You could make a mini-sky scraper of your difficulties, causing them to tower above the other portions of the plate like Godzilla over Tokyo.  It will only succeed in making today miserable and won’t help tomorrow at all.

So far, this all seems depressing.  Every day will have disasters – small and great – and we’ll just have to struggle our way through them.

Jesus didn’t want this thought to depress His followers.  His was a call to joy and trust.  Our heavenly Father takes care of birds and flowers, can’t we trust Him to take care of us and our futures?

I will admit that I’ve had to back off the amount of time I spend on social media in recent days (that’s probably a good thing).  I have found it pushing me both to anger and anxiety and neither one of those is an appropriate emotion for someone who trusts his Father.

Of course, the things I worry about are much more important than whether or not molting hens will begin to lay again, but regardless of whether my anxieties are over problems in the chicken coop or a possible World War III, I can bring them to my heavenly Father and leave them with Him.  He loves me enough to take care of me, even if the very foundations of civilization are falling apart.

Carrot Mountain

 

“What did you children think of Parrot Mountain?”  I asked our two youngest children.  We had just meandered our way through a semi-tropical paradise complete with caged Toucans and Lorikeets near Sevierville.

"I LOVED it,” Elise said.  “The birds were awesome.”

"It was OK,” Victoria said.  She is always more measured in her willingness to give complements or to admit enjoyment (or distress) over some event in her life.

“I think I would like to start a place called Carrot Mountain,” I said.

“Can I come?”  Elise asked.

“Sure, once I get done getting it started,” I said.

“It doesn’t sound very exciting,” Victoria said.  “I think seeing parrots is more interesting than seeing carrots.”

“Oh, but you haven’t seen all of the carrots I will have.  I’ll even have special carrots carved to look like famous people.  I'm sure the one of Donald Trump will look just like him.  We'll probably even have carrots that look like the twelve apostles.”

“We don’t know what the disciples looked like so how would you know that the carrot looked like a one?”  Victoria asked.

“You would know by the label under the carrot,” I said. 

I still haven’t gotten around to starting Carrot Mountain.  It may be a great project, but I don’t quite have the bandwidth necessary to get this sort of project off the ground.

I do find the contrast between my daughters to be fascinating.  One is easily excited and easily distressed.  The other is a little less emotional – probably feeling things just as much, but not as quick to express her excitement and enjoyment.

Life is hard.  many of us (myself included) struggle to find joy in everyday things.  We get through the toil of today’s efforts like a Sherpa lugging a load from base camp to camp 2, striving on with the knowledge that tomorrow will only bring another slope and another burden.

“Neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) 

It is amazing what strength comes to us as we experience joy.  Allowing ourselves the freedom to smile and realize that although there are dark clouds behind the silver linings, those clouds are under control of our Heavenly Father.

I pray that we might find that joy – a joy that provides strength in the midst of work struggles and political turmoil.  A joy that might even carry you through a trip to Carrot Mountain.