Give Thanks
By Shirley Mitchell
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Oh, my, did I blow it! After we eat dinner together in my house, it is study time. Since my husband was having Bible study in the living room, my adopted Chinese daughter-of-my-heart Victoria and I snuggled next to each other while sitting on my bed. I hold her book and use my pointer finger to show her which word to read. This year, Victoria has been very resistant to learning with Mommy. In preschool she was a great learner, but she has lost interest in learning and is not doing as well in school. Of course, I struggle with carrying the mom-guilt that it is my fault since I was focusing so much on ministry to others. Why do we as women think that we have to be the perfect mom and perfect wife? Moms have got to let satan stop winning one on us about this. Anyway, I digress…
This night was particularly hard because her sisters had finished studying and were playing in the other room well within audible range even though the doors were closed. Victoria could not pay attention to the book. She just groaned and whined. Like many Christian parents, I spit out Philippians 2:14, “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” However, she is desensitized to the power of this verse because she has heard it so much…Not hard to figure out where she has heard it.
In desperation, I told her about the story of “Sha – Sha.” In Chinese, the word for thank you is “XieXie Ni” (formal) but more commonly just XieXie. The common way is pronounced “She-ey Shay” with the first syllable falling in tone and the second one flat or the Mitchell way, just “sha-sha.” I told her that in China there are millions of girls still in the orphanage. Only a very few children are adopted from the orphanage (2% last time I checked). These children, mostly girls, do not get much of an education. They are treated like third class citizens. I told her “Sha-sha” represents all of the Chinese girls who don’t get adopted and don’t get a chance to go to school like she does. I tried to use the story format to tell her about how she used to play with little girls in the orphanage who will never get adopted. They won’t have a mommy. They won’t experience love like she does. She shouldn’t complain but be thankful that God had given her a family and the chance to learn by going to such a good school. God had done so much for her.
This is when everything crashed. She changed from a whiner to a sobbing griever. Her heart was broken for a little girl named Sha-sha. I held her in my arms for a long time. The Kleenexes were flying through the air followed by the sound like an elephant blowing its trunk. After another attempt at reading, I let her go to her sisters to play. Instead, she went in there and sobbed to them about Sha-sha, her friend still in the orphanage. She told them that she wanted to adopt Sha-sha. Then Mikayla and Sophia join in with her on their campaign to go rescue Sha-sha from China. Both Doug and I were bombarded with pleas to adopt Sha-sha as their sister. Oh, my! Can you believe how that went from bad to worse? Mark down another one for some of my worst parenting moments.
Over the course of the next few days, God showed me something through today’s Bible verse which was Victoria’s memory verse that I was trying to teach to her that night. Since I have said it so many times to Victoria, I found myself meditating on this verse. If you read yesterday’s devotion, then you know that it was about the first three words of today’s Scripture, “Be joyful always…” God gave me two devotions through this meditation on this verse day and night. Anyway, the day after the Sha-sha incident, I was looking through some of my very first Bible studies for the first time in several years. They didn’t have much written in them because I didn’t know how to answer the questions, read it and skipped that part, or I just didn’t do the homework!
The few answers that were there brought back to my mind the girl that I used to be. I was alone and afraid when I started doing Bible study. I saw how God answered my prayers for a husband and a helpmate. I fell in love again with my husband who is fasting and praying for this ministry and me right now! I thought about how God sought me out of so many broken down women. I was filthy with sin, the mud of the world, and the slime of lies I bought from the evil one. I was in need of a parent to raise me to teach me how to be a woman and not a little girl. I needed a parent to nurture, correct, rebuke, and train me. I was in need of dignity and restoration to significance. I thought that I am just like Victoria. I had forgotten how far my God has pulled me out of the pit and cleansed me. I have been saved from spiritual poverty! I have been saved from being an orphan, and I am now a child of God. I had forgotten how He has transformed my heart. All of this gratitude and thankfulness swelled up in me.
I have all of the rights of the daughter of the Most High King. Instead of living like I am entitled to good things, I should be eternally thankful! I am not entitled to anything! As we honor and show our gratitude tomorrow for what God has done in raising up our country, let’s also be thankful that God raised us up out of spiritual poverty! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He redeemed us while we were so pitiful and helpless in our sin. Let’s be thankful that God didn’t leave us as orphans. In love, He chose us to adopt us as His daughters, and it brought Him so much pleasure (Ephesians 1:5)! How amazing is He? Praise You, Lord!
Pray with me:Oh, Lord, we are so thankful! You have lavished Your love upon us. Thank You for letting us live in the most blessed nation that You raised up from Christians seeking to have the freedom to worship You. Thank You for blessing us with our loved ones. Thank You most of all for YOU! You are the Giver of every good gift. You are everything good!
Don’t let us live with a sense of entitlement. We are entitled to nothing! In fact, Your Word tells us the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We have earned death, but You chose to give us life through Your precious Son. May that knowledge never come lightly over us, but may we instead live in thankfulness. You may cast off our sin and remember it no more. However, You let us remember it so we can live in thankfulness. It leads us to worship You and adore You. We lift up Your Name and exalt You as worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.