Giving thanks always

Sarah is a Christian wife and mom of two girls.  I love life and am learning how to give thanks in all things.  I enjoy blogging as a way to share with others the blessings and joys in life that are out there if we just look around! You can find her blog here and shop here. Read more posts from Sarah here.

I have been so blessed lately.I recently had an opportunity to attend a conference where Ann Voskamp was the speaker.  If you aren't familiar, she wrote the book One Thousand Gifts.  It's an incredible book and she is an amazing speaker.
In my blog life, I strive to seek out the blessings and joys in my life - a life which includes the struggles and challenges associated with having a special needs child.  I don't mean that she is a burden.  Not at all.  Any life that is not textbook "normal" is going to have challenges, whether they be financial, emotional, health or other.  I suppose no life is "normal" - we all face challenges of one sort or another.
But when life throws you a curve and things become incredibly difficult to manage, it's hard to cope sometimes. I found in my own life that the only way to not spiral down into this bottomless pit of despair was to actively and intentionally write out the things that I was thankful for.  This was long before I'd ever heard of Ann Voskamp and her notion of keeping a journal where you can write out the things that you are thankful for.  I forced myself and eventually, I began to climb out of that pit.  I intentionally embraced the positive things in my life - the things that had been so distant and so difficult to see before I began blogging.
Life is still challenging.  Every day challenging.
But I'm still trying.  I fail sometimes.  But I'm trying.
I have been hosting a "Thankful Thursdays" link up on my blog for several months now.  I am trying to implement some of the things I've been learning from Voskamp.  Eucharisteo: joy, grace, thanksgiving.  I'm still listing all the blessings in my life that I'm seeing, but I'm trying now to intentionally list the hard things in life in which I can find things to be thankful for.
As only God can do, He provided something for me that was really tangible last night.  We had our First Wednesday service at church last night.  It's a time of worship and praise through song followed by a message from our pastor.  Then they move into a "response time" where we can reflect on the message, receive communion, seek prayer, etc. while soft music continues.  This week, the service was different.  We had Christian artist Matt Redman in the house leading worship.  It was amazing.  The whole service was.  We didn't have the usual "message" portion, but we did have all other normal aspects of the service.  Matt sang a song that I had not ever heard before and now I cannot stop listening to it:


All I could think of during this song was about this spirit of "thanksgiving" that God has been pressing on my heart lately.  I've been intentionally being thankful about things on my blog on a weekly basis as I said.  But since hearing Ann Voskamp, I feel like God is asking me to re-think how I do this.  I feel that I'm supposed to embrace this concept in a new way.  I still don't know exactly what that looks like, but when I heard Matt sing this song, it was such an incredible reminder of what it means to embrace a spirit of thanksgiving at all times in life.  I am embracing this even more so now and I am going to work harder on really listening to God and what He's trying to tell me through this.
Here are the lyrics to 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord) by Matt Redman:

Bless the lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I worship you holy name

The sun comes up 
Its a new day dawning
Its time to sing your song again
What ever may pass and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before 
Oh my soul
I worship your holy name

You're rich in love and you're slow to anger
Your name is great and your heart is kind
For all your goodness i will keep on singing
10,000 reasons for my heart to find

Bless the lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I worship your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Soon my soul sing your praise un-ending
10,000 years and there forever more

Bless the lord oh my soul 
Oh my soul
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I worship your holy name

Bless the lord oh my soul 
Oh my soul
Worship his holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I worship your holy name (repeat 3x)

Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I worship your holy name (repeat 3x)