I CORINTHIANS 13:4<\/strong><\/h2>\n

4\u00a0Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I PETER 2:9<\/strong><\/h2>\n

9\u00a0But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God\u2019s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So, last week was a test for me, but I didn\u2019t know it. I wanted to say thank you to all of you to show how grateful I am for what you do and write and think.<\/p>\n

And then you started saying thank you back and this is where I get TERRIBLE. I\u2019ve talked before about how hard it is for me to accept compliments\u2014how hard the \u201cthank you\u201d really is to say without deflecting or diminishing the praise.<\/p>\n

Here is the honest truth: I find it easier to be grateful and give thanks for the hard things\u2014those things that \u201cdid not kill me,\u201d but did in fact \u201cmake me stronger.\u201d I am grateful with a hard guttural emphasis on GRATE. I am grateful in hindsight:<\/p>\n

\n
• I am grateful for my family (after years of infertility and fertility treatments).<\/li>\n
• I am grateful for my healthy kids (because they have survived weeks and weeks in the NICU and tracheotomies and feeding tubes and seizures and wheelchairs and syndromes).<\/li>\n
• I am grateful for underwear (because my obstinate three-year-old is finally potty training.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  This list goes on and on of the things I can now openly say I am grateful for. But the things I find hardest to lift up in thanks are the easy ones\u2014the ones that fell, more or less, into my lap. It feels like boasting:<\/p>\n

  \n
  • Yes, I am thankful for my ability to write, but no I do not want to brag.<\/li>\n
  • Yes, I am thankful for the house we live in, but no, it\u2019s not as big as some.<\/li>\n
  • Yes, I am thankful for my husband who loves me so much he can read me like a book, but of course we have our problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    I like me addendums. They keep me in check. We are trained not to boast. Paul\u2019s letter to the Corinthians says so.<\/p>\n

    But we are also ordered by Peter to \u201cdeclare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.\u201d We are to be grateful for what God has done in our lives and then talk about it…and not just the stuff we\u2019ve survived<\/em>, but the stuff we\u2019ve been given<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    God wants to hear your \u201cthank yous\u201d for the van\u2019s new tires and the job promotion and the kid doing well in math and the beautiful phrase you\u2019ve just managed to turn. He wants us to share that with each other. Not everything has to be about the things we\u2019ve overcome. It can also be about the things that have come to us. And so:<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \n
    • I am grateful for the woman who cuts my hair.<\/li>\n
    • I am grateful for the two days a week my kids are in school.<\/li>\n
    • I am grateful for my husband\u2019s new job which keeps him closer to home.<\/li>\n
    • I am grateful for the woman in Sunday school who watches Charlie.<\/li>\n
    • I am grateful the twins know their ABCs and are smarter than the average bear.<\/li>\n
    • I am grateful that I am making a killer pumpkin pie and then ordering a complete Thanksgiving meal from Whole Foods because I don\u2019t want to cook.<\/li>\n
    • I am grateful for Whole Foods.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      I think the more I say these, the more I will get better at it. I think it will start to feel natural to say thank you after compliments without filling in the silence with more words. I think if I keep pointing up at God, it will remind me that this life is full of things to be grateful for that I didn\u2019t have to climb a mountain to get. The turkey will be awesome, even if I didn\u2019t have to baste it at 4 a.m. And for that I am grateful.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Sunday Thoughts Link Up!<\/strong><\/h1>\n

      It’s time for another Sunday Thoughts Link-Up! I know there are many out there with wisdom that could encourage all of us. As long as it’s faith-based, I’d love for you to join up and then read and comment on what others have shared. Please also leave a comment here. Think of this as a Sunday morning community group that comes to you. And grab the button if you like…<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      <\/div>\n

      <div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/mom-gene.com\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"The Mom Gene\"><img src=\"http:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sunday-Thoughts-Button.jpeg\" alt=\"The Mom Gene\" style=\"border: none; height: auto; width: 200px;\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/textarea><\/pre>\n<p><style type=\"text\/css\">\n\n\n\t#sm_form > input[type=\"submit\"], \n\t#sm_form > input[type=\"button\"]{\n\n\t\tpadding: 10px 10px 10px 10px !important;\n\t\tborder: none !important;\n\t\t\n\t\tfont-size: 16px !important;\n\t\tfont-family: helvetica,sans-serif;\n\t\tbackground-color: #a5a5a5 !important;\n\t\tline-height: normal;\n\t\tvertical-align: unset !important\n\t\t\n\t} \n\t#sm_form > input[type=\"text\"],input[type=\"email\"]{\n\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\tpadding: 0;\n\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\theight: 35px;\n\t\tmargin-left: 5%;\n\t\tmargin-bottom: 5%;\n\t\tfont-size: 16px;\n\t\tfont-family: helvetica,sans-serif;\n\t\tvertical-align: unset !important;\n\t}\n\t\n\t.sm_field{\n\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\tpadding: 0;\n\t\twidth: 50%;\n\t\theight: 35px;\n\t\tmargin-left: 5%;\n\t\tmargin-bottom: 5%;\n\t\tfont-size: 16px;\n\t}\n\t.sm_submit:hover{\n\t\tbackground-color: #4b8bcc !important;\n\t\tbackground: #4b8bcc !important;\n\t}\n\t.sm_submit,#sm_submit{\n\t\tmargin: 0 ;\n\t\tborder: none !important;\t\n\t\t \t\n\t}\n\t#response{\n\t\tdisplay: none;\n\t\tfont-family: helvetica,sans-serif;\n\t\tfont-style: italic;\n\t\t}\n\n\n\t\n\n<\/style>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"sm_wrapper\" id='sm_wrapper' class='smwrapper' data-delay=\"1000\" style=\"color: #424242 !important; max-width: 600px; min-width:360px; background: #dd3030;\" >\n\t<h3 style=\" padding: 20px 10px 20px; background:#ECEEAD;font-family: helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 22px; margin: 0;\">Sunday Thoughts Weekly Reminder  <\/h3>\n\n\t<p style=\"font-size: 16px; font-family: helvetica,sans-serif; margin:15px;\"> Sign up to get a reminder each week when the Sunday Thoughts Link Up goes live!                           <\/p>\n\n\t<form id=\"sm_form\" action=http:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=ssm_subscribe_form_db method=\"post\" class=\"smform\" >\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"sm_id\" value=\"2863\" >\n\t\t<input type='hidden' name='ssm_sub_url' class=\"ssm_sub_url\" value='' >\n\t\t<input type='text' id='sm_input' class='sm_field' name='sm_name' placeholder=\"Name\" >\n\t\t<input type='email' id='sm_input' class='sm_field' name='sm_email' placeholder=\"Email Address\" required >\n\t \t<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"WS_SSM_Subs_Form_Nonce\" name=\"WS_SSM_Subs_Form_Nonce\" value=\"44212f00a1\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wp_http_referer\" value=\"\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"WS_SSM_Subs_Form_Nonce\" name=\"WS_SSM_Subs_Form_Nonce\" value=\"44212f00a1\" \/><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wp_http_referer\" value=\"\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\" \/>\t\t<input type=\"submit\"  name=\"submit\" value=\"SUBSCRIBE\" class=\"sm_submit\" id='sm_submit'  style=\"color: #dd3030 !important; background-color: #a5a5a5 !important; background: #a5a5a5 !important; \">\n\t<\/form>   \n\t<div style=\"font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.8; background: #e3e3e3; padding: 9px 0 1px 15px; font-family: helvetica,sans-serif; \">\n\t\t<span id=\"response\" style=\"color: #424242 !important; \">\n\t\tThank you for subscribing.    \t<\/span>\n\t\t<p>A big thank you from Jamie on The Mom Gene!<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n[inlinkz_linkup id=749443 mode=1]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I CORINTHIANS 13:4 4\u00a0Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. I PETER 2:9 9\u00a0But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God\u2019s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. So, last week was a test for me, but I didn\u2019t know it. I wanted to say thank<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/2017\/11\/19\/goodness-gracious-sunday-thoughts-link-up-49\/\"> …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[21,13,11,22],"tags":[367,214,28,97,27,366,46,417,34,48,25,209,55,136,16,119,63,54,17,100,24,58,15,59,421,398,29,52],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/thanksgiving-2911504_1920.jpg?fit=1920%2C1271&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ca5p-12s","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3996"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4033,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\/revisions\/4033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}