I've been chewing on this one for a few days/weeks now... Not just that God is good, but that all is grace (a concept highlighted so well courtesy of Ann Voskamp, at www.aholyexperience.com). I've been challenged to thanksgiving, not just for the good stuff but for all the stuff. If God is good all the time, and He always works things out for our good, and all is grace from His hands, then I really cannot pick and choose what to give thanks for. I need to give thanks for all of it. The thick and the thin, the sunshine and the rain, the days the boys are angelic with the days when they are not so much...
I am having a bit of trouble with this. I know it is not a new concept. Paul spoke of it in Phillipians, the Psalmist spoke of it often... But finding the will to say Thank you for another grey day, another day of telling the boys off is hard. I am working on the obedience aspect of it. Saying Thank You not because things are going so well, but because He is working all things for my good, the grey days, the sunny ones, the telling off days and the hugs one... I wonder if this is what Solomon meant in Ecclesiastes, that there is a time for everything under the Sun... Put together with Paul, does it then mean that there is a time for everything, but it is always time to be grateful and to rejoice in God? Not in our circumstances, but in the One who is above all those circumstances and Who is orchestrating them for His glory?
