Grateful in the Midst of Trouble

 

I am learning in time of trouble to do what I call look around the edges.  It is where reasons for gratitude can be seen when facing the trouble head on makes it hard to see anything but the trouble.  In a recent moment a look in that direction shows me a friend in Houston and one in middle Georgia who are praying each day; a neighbor and friend a little older than me coming to take hay to the cows; a young fifth grade friend who saw to the chickens: a kinsman and friend bringing a bowl of chicken and dumplings; and a local IGA owner and friend who collected an order and had it ready at the door.   

None of this is extraordinary unless you are the one on the receiving end.  And, most of us can count the people who come to us when trouble comes knocking at our door.  They cause us to have our heart filled with such gratitude that it enables us to begin to see other things in the harder places for which to be grateful.  When the Word calls us to grateful living, it does not call us to ignore or refute our trouble, but to know that blessings are always coming even though we may have to look a second time to see them.   

Some years ago I started a gratitude journal and though the list is now nearly ten years old, I can read over the brief note of gratitude written on a single line and remember so many of the moments.  It has become a record of God's faithfulness as surely as is the very Word of God.  It is something which blesses me each time I hold it and something I would pray could be in the hands of everyone when trouble comes.