Thoughts on Gratitude

With our homeschool back in full force, I’ve been fighting the daily battle with the elder boy of “Yes, we’re doing school today. No, we’re not just doing a little bit. Why? Because I want you to grow up and know stuff – it’s terrible, I realize.” It’s exhausting. And still, every day, “Mama? Can we skip school today? Just today?” happens at least once.

On Friday, since I knew my hubby was getting home around noon, I’d planned to give him the day off school so he could have a fun afternoon with daddy. I hadn’t told him yet though, and as lunchtime came around, he started asking, “Mama…please can we not do school today? Or at least no handwriting?”

I got so annoyed. And I said to him, “Baby, could you just stop complaining and wait and see if I might have something good in store for you?”

And then, as frequently happens in these parenting moments, conviction hit. I wonder how many times God shakes His head and wants to say to me, “Stop complaining. I have something amazing planned for you, if you’ll just wait.”

Now, I know God wants us to bring Him our needs, wants, desires, and heartaches. But I wonder if He wouldn’t also love it if we’d sometimes step back and just thank Him for all that we do have–however much or little that may be–and push aside the little niggling complaints about things we don’t like or wish were a different day (not the big stuff – the little petty stuff we get caught up in, like handwriting).

That’s my goal for September – to be more grateful in my prayers. I am richly blessed–I need to spend more time saying Thank You to the One who blessed me.