Am I thankful enough?

I was sitting in church yesterday and the theme was being thankful. No surprise since this is the week of Thanksgiving. Everyone is reminded to be thankful this time of year, but as the sermon began, God talked to me. He asked me if I am thankful enough? Am I thankful no matter what the circumstances are? Is being thankful my first response to trials or does it take me awhile to get there? As I sat in the pew and pondered these thoughts, I realized that I'm growing in Christ. Even 3 years ago, my response to anything going wrong would have been, why me? Why now? Why this? As I've said before, this year has been a hard one, to say the least, but I can honestly say, with God as my witness, that during this trial, I've never asked those three questions. I've never questioned God about any of this. You, who know my heart, know that I'm not trying to boast or brag about this, but I'm realizing through this trial how much God has changed my heart over the years. I no longer feel the need to question God about His plans for my life, or His interceding when life seemed to be going along ok.

If I had to choose one word to describe myself, it would be realistic or practical. Some of you would describe me as an "upbeat, optimistic" kind of person, but I would say that I'm a realist.
You know when they ask you if you see the glass as half-empty or half-full, well, I see it as both. The reality is, it IS half-empty AND half-full. Both answers are correct.

This reminded me that in life, there are two sides to every trial or circumstance. Here are just a few examples that I've experienced this year alone.
-the loss of my Dad. . .what a loss! It would have been nice to have him stick around for the 2 years that they gave us with his first diagnosis, but that would have meant that he'd have to suffer for two very long years. How could I possibly wish him back to me from Heaven?
-my heart issues. . .I was diagnosed with a heart murmur when I was a little kid. When I got pregnant for the first time, they said the murmur was actually a mitral valve prolapse. I've never had any side effects and I don't take any medications for my condition and a couple years ago I found out that I now have 2 leaking valves instead of one, but still no problems. If my heart hadn't started racing because of the increased fluid caused by the grapefruit sized mass on my ovary, I wouldn't know about the ovarian cancer.
-my surgery in June. . .before my surgery, they told me that the cancer had probably spread to my colon and that I would probably have to have a colostomy bag but instead the cancer had spread to my spleen. I've had no side effects from the removal of my spleen. My immune system seems to be working just fine.
-my hospital stay. . .with the amount of surgery that I had, I should have stayed there for 3-5 weeks, but I was released in 2 weeks. It's possible that I would have been able to go home after one week, but the allergic reaction to the morphine made that first week impossible, plus, I've never seen a bill from UNC for anything.
-chemo. . .need I say more! Chemo brought 4 of my dearest friends back into my life when life had become so busy, that we'd lost touch with each other.

My list could go on and on, but you get the picture. All of these things have negative(half-empty) connotations to them, but through them all, God always showed me the positive(half-full) side. It's not that I'm an upbeat or optimistic type of person, I just saw God in it all. How can my glass only be half-empty when God is involved? Life will always be rough, but God promises that He will always walk with me through it all. Everything that happens in life has two sides to it. My question to you is this, do you look for both sides, or are you still looking at life from just the one side? As we begin to know Him more and more, how can we ever just see the one side? No matter how much we hurt, no matter how hard life seems sometimes, how can we not see Him walking with us? It's true that bad things happen to good people but it's also true that great things happen to those whose trust is in the Lord, amen? AMEN

I Thess. 5:18 says, "No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.(TLB). Being thankful, inspite of our circumstances, is what God longs for us. Begin to look at life's trials as half-full instead of half-empty. Make Christ's attitude become your attitude. Don't just thank Him for the good things in life. We've heard over and over again in sermons, that it's the trials that build our character. My little conversation with God in that pew yesterday, reminded me of how much He's helped my faith grow in Him and how much I'm slowly becoming more and more like Him everyday. Praise be to Him!! If He can mold me( yes, some of you think I'm already "moldy" enough, hee! hee!), then there's hope for everyone. I'm very stubborn and strong willed, but you already know that! Still, He keeps hanging in there with me. Is that awesome or what?? I so don't deserve any of this that comes from Him, and yet He's still walking with me. It blows my mind! To think that anyone could love me that much!! How can I not have an attitude of thanksgiving? How can ANYONE belonging to Christ, not have an attitude of thanksgiving?

So. . .thanks be to God for everything. For the good, the bad, the uninvited interruptions, for everything, thanks be to God!!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheryl