Thankful Tuesday and a GIVEAWAY!

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts 

and always be THANKFUL!

Colossians 3:2

Today is Thankful Tuesday. I have been anticipating celebrating this special day again on the blog because the Lord has been doing a mighty work in this ungrateful heart of mine on this topic.

On mention of "Choosing Gratitude" by Nancy Lee DeMoss by my dear friend Maly, I decided to read this book on being thankful to the Lord. I had no idea what kind of a ride I was in for.

The title "Choosing Gratitude" sums up the challenge of the book that in any and every situation there is something to be grateful to God for even if it is remembering back to the day that Christ saved your soul.

The Lord absolutely had His hand in the timing of me reading this book and it reminds me of how much He cares about the details of my life. In a time in my life where it would be easy to sink and sulk, I am constantly reminded through scripture and this book that I have so much to be grateful to God for that it is almost unbelieveable.

I thought when I first began reading "Choosing Gratitude" that Nancy Lee would say the dreaded "just choose the bright side" and "always be happy and thankful" and I thought to myself, this is not how someone is when they are going through a hard time and that is ok. If you know about some of the characters of the bible, including David in the Psalms, Jeremiah, and Job, all of them cried out to God for Him to take their lives because of the heartfelt pain inflicted on their souls. Even Jesus in the garden, shed drops of blood as sweat because of his pain. No one would say that Jesus should have been upbeat, smiling at the point when He knew what was about to happen.

But somewhere along the way of reading this book, the part of me that wanted to hold on to being unthankful as part of my right for what I've been through in my life disappeared. And God started changing my heart. It doesn't mean that I don't have bad days and things don't genuinely upset me, that I don't take a moment to cry out to God about what is causing me pain, and that my flesh doesn't rear it's ugly head every now. But, deep down in my soul, I feel so much gratitude to the Lord not only the good but also the bad in my life because I know that my God, who loves me so dearly, has a plan for my life that will bring Him so much glory and that is what I am made for!

I am not finished on my journey toward lifelong gratitude and I will never have "arrived" in this area I am very aware of this especially since unthankfulness is something my flesh just loves to meditate on BUT I am striving to give over this area of my life to God daily and I am truly thankful to the Lord for my friend Maly (I am hoping she will write for me one day!!) and for her mentioning this book to me.

All of that being said, I am going to give away a copy! So, if you would like a copy of "Choosing Gratitude" by Nancy Lee DeMoss; I am going to make this easy. Just enter your name and how I can contact you if you win as a comment and I will randomly pick a winner on Saturday!!

...more on "Choosing Gratitude" to come....


And you know I can't leave Thankful Tuesday without saying how Thankful I am for these two: 

1 Chronicles 16:8

Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people!