Give Thanks

“Hit it, Harlow!”

Every day, we pray together on our ride to school. We start out the same way, “Good morning, Jesus!” Depending on which kid is doing the praying that day, I facilitate the prayer or just listen as Grey or Harlow talk to Jesus.

If you know Harlow, you know she’s a ham. She loves dancing to music and has taken on “preaching” as her side hustle. She stands atop surfaces and delivers her sermons. She raises her hands to worship in the car. And her prayers are the type akin to those of that uncle who won’t stop praying while everyone else is fidgeting, ready to carve the Thanksgiving turkey.

“Thank you for our car. Thank you for our food. Thank you for our family. Thank you for our Bubba. Thank you for our church. Thank you for our pastor. Thank you for our people. Thank you for our living room. Thank you for our cabinets. Thank you for our spoons. Thank you for our toilet paper.”

I laughed, thinking of the scene in Anchorman where Brick says, “I love…lamp”. Just naming things he sees.

But I thought about it a little more and concluded that, yes, we should be thankful for the literal things we see. The things that we have, the things that we’ve done. The people we know. The people we want to know. The opportunities we have. The trials we are facing.

Why can’t we bring all of those to Jesus?

I think oftentimes we feel that we can bring only part of ourselves to Him. The rest of it would be too much for Him. We are working on some stuff, and when we get it all shined up, then we’ll bring those to Him, too. We keep the messiness tucked up in our hearts, afraid to lay them at the feet of Jesus.

But yall, He wants all of it. He wants up to trust Him with our spoons just as much as our CT scans. He wants us to delight in Him, just to delight in Him.

I think that’s such an important aspect of our relationship with Christ. In the same way I send my spouse random texts of adoration, I offer prayers consisting of praise to Jesus.

When praying with the kids, we always thank God for sending Jesus and giving us the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. Harlow sometimes jokes with us that Jesus is in our bellies rather than our hearts. I like to think He has a sense of humor and appreciates Harlow feeling “full” from the love of her father.

So, let’s praise Him this week for all of the little things we often overlook. Spend some time getting back to the basics and honoring God for meeting our needs, and maybe some of our wants. Let’s remind those around us that, yea, the world around us can be pretty confusing and downright crappy, but there’s always, always, always something to be thankful for.

2 Corinthians 9:11 “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

Psalm 106:1 “Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Hebrews 13:15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

Psalm 9:1-2 “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”

Psalm 103:1 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”

James 5:13 “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.”