In February, I wrote a post on this blog that likened special needs parenting to Groundhog Day, because sometimes we find ourselves fighting the same battles over and over. Typical parents go through seasons one after the other, while many of us are in the same season all the time, or we restart the same season every so often. I have found myself with today’s same prayer requests and same cries to God many times over in the past 19 years of my son’s life. Perhaps you also experience a recurring health problem, behavior crisis, school situation, family issue or economic need.
Today, I want to focus on a different holiday that, if taken fully as the Bible prescribes it, can often alleviate the flare-ups that cause us to periodically run to God: Thanksgiving. Not just turkey time or family time, but Thanksgiving as an act that is recommended every day.
Did you know that David, the psalmist and man after God’s own heart, wrote as many desperate complaints to God as he did worship songs? If you read through all of his pleas, cries and laments, you will notice that he finishes each one with thanksgiving. Yes, I got that correct: I’m not talking about his praise verses, I’m talking about his complaint verses. For example, look up Psalms 77. He starts with cries, distress, groans and fainting. In verse 7 he asks, “Will the Lord reject me forever? Will He never show His favor again? Has His unfailing love vanished forever?”
Then David turns the tables on his state of mind in verse 11: “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes I will remember your miracles of long ago.” He spends the remainder of the chapter reminding himself of all the great, mighty and miraculous things the Lord has done. David shows us the perfect prescription for breaking out of the “Groundhog Day” cycle, and it is Thanksgiving.
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The Bible tells us repeatedly through both the Old and New Testaments to give thanks for what the Lord has done. I will admit that I am often guilty of a one-time thank you prayer. When God provides one solid rest-filled night in a month of sleeplessness, I definitely wake up praising and thanking Him for glorious sleep. But by the next day or week, I am praying for something new, or begging for more sleep, and I don’t really go back and revisit that miracle night over and over again as David did.
Thanksgiving is really a place we should live. To follow David’s example of finding joy, peace and God’s eternal affection, thanksgiving must be something we practice each day. Not just thanking Him for what He did right now, but remembering all that He has done with an awe-filled and reverent spirit. Remembrance was one of the initial instructions God gave to the Israelites in the very beginning, and it is woven throughout the Old and New Testaments, including in the covenant of communion that Jesus left us as a final instruction.
This year, let Thanksgiving kick-off a thankfulness habit that repeats itself every day, and remember all of the things that God has done for you. Keep a prayer journal or thanksgiving journal, so that on mornings when your brain can’t find a single item on the horizon to be grateful for, you can flip back through the journal and remind yourself of what the Lord has done. If you read Psalms 77, you’ll see that on the day David wrote the psalm, he dug pretty far back in history to find things to be thankful for; he even gave thanks for things that the Lord did before he was born! God is good, He has done great things, and remembering them makes all the difference for our hearts, our minds and our attitudes. So the next time we feel like we’re in the same rut, asking God for the same thing, we will instead be reminded of all that He has already done. Thanksgiving will change our outlook and perspective on His future provision for us and our families.
Melanie Gomez is the author of the 14-day devotional Bundle of Joy , helping special needs parents align their faith with their child’s diagnosis. Follow Melanie on Facebook or her website, RedefineSpecial.com.
