Thankful Heart

Eph. 5:20 , “…giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ,...”

It was laundry day plus seven, so the piles were particularly high. After my back began to ache from bending over, I sat down on the concrete floor of the laundry room to finish the sorting. I was in one of those ugly, grumbling moods. Complaints I have enough self-control to not allow on my lips were nonetheless spinning about in my head.

This must be the 87^th sock ball. Mommies know what sock balls are. They are the damp, stinky masses created when young children remove socks in their own special way and make a tightly-packed sphere. Of course, socks cannot be washed that way, so mommies, as they sort the laundry, must unwind each one. Eighty-eight. Eighty-nine. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to teach a four-year-old to make sock balls if it was a necessary skill?

So I sat there cross-legged on the concrete floor surrounded by piles of laundry, the smell of my husband’s running shirts, well-ripened, in my nose, and even fouler thoughts in my head. Sigh.

Wait. Stop. “Giving thanks always for all things…” Thanks? For this?

It was then that my heart was filled with shame. Why do I have all this laundry to do? Because we have closets and drawers full of clothing—even enough to last us when the laundry gets skipped for a week. And I have a son who makes sock balls. A son! I lost two children before my son was born, and thought I might never have a child to raise. And now I have this beautiful child and I have the audacity to grumble about sock balls! Why do I have stinky running shirts to wash? Because I have a wonderful husband who is my best friend, my lover, my confidante, my provider and my protector. Lord, forgive me.

Then my heart was filled with thanksgiving, genuine gratitude for all that God has given me, all He has done for me, and all He has taught me about Himself.

Psalm 100:4

Bless His name.

Be thankful to Him,

And into His Courts with praise,

Enter His gates with thanksgiving,

Comments

[Katherine]

I think about this a lot when I am doing the laundry, too. Not only do I have a wonderful husband and two wonderful children who all wear clothes, and plenty of clothes to wear, but I have a laundry chute, a laundry sorting wheeling thing, a washer and dryer and running water, abundant detergent, and a sheltered place to do the laundry. Blessings to remember!

You really made me laugh about the sock balls, though! Those are annoying...oh well.

[Valerie]

Oh! Sock balls. Yes, I've gotten frustrated about them more than once.

Dory, once again you have turned my thoughts to the vertical. You are so obviously familiar with all "the daily grinds", yet you see and reveal the wrong thinking in your own heart, and know and show the clear path to right thinking.

Through your writing, God is revealing to me the great extent of my complaining, discontented heart. I really do have so much to be thankful for. God has blessed me despite myself. And even in the unpleasant tasks, there is much to be thankful for.

I "know" these things, yet too often fail to live them to even the smallest degree. I can "preach" them, yet rarely show an example of them lived out in my own life.