Giving thanks for the Not-So-Amazing Events

After all, it is Thanksgiving Season here in the United States.  Many people take this time to declare gratitude for the goodness in their own lives.

Wealth. Comfort. Health. Family. Friends. Freedom.

As one who is rarely content to follow the crowd, I haven’t been posting daily gratitude posts on social media.  Not everyone is given the blessing of wealth, or comfort, or health, or family, or friends.

And yet, I do enjoy reflecting and digging deeper.

Hmmm… there are so many amazing events in my life for which to be thankful, how could I possibly name just one?

As a momma of six ever-so-amazing children through the blessing of foster care and adoption, this is probably what most of my friends might expect me to choose as my answer. Truly each adoption was (and is) an incredible special event.

Or even better, as a follower of Jesus, some might expect me to select as a special event the day on which I “came to Christ” – using a common phrase in evangelical circles. But there isn’t one specific date for me to cite as I reflect on the journey that ultimately brought me to surrender all. Was it when I was 6 or 7 or 8 or 13 (or every other day in between when I dutifully prayed the prayer from fear)? Was it when I was 21 and felt a surge of regret and shame?  Was it when, bit-by-bit, I realized my depravity and my separation from God?  Yep, that’s probably it, but I don’t have a date on the calendar circled.

And then just like that, I realized that The Most Special Event of my life was preceded by a series of special events more commonly regarded as Not-So-Amazing Events that spared me from Horrible Events!

Today, it is for the Not-So-Amazing Events that I give thanks. 

I’m thankful for the reputation-destroying and near-death experiences when I was hanging out with a risky crowd of people because now I am able to more compassionately come alongside of others making similar choices and because I actually survived (!!!) and lived to love on 25 babies and adopted 6 precious and ever-so-amazing children.

I’m thankful for the fear-filled naysayers who attempted to negatively influence my decision to foster, adopt, and homeschool my children as a single momma. Painful as it was to endure their criticisms, the grains of truth were (and still are) that I am weak, it is a hard road, and I’m not able to do it all. BUT when God calls us to follow Him, He equips us to do it. (Romans 8:30) So, in my weakness and inability to do any of it alone, God’s grace and mercy are put on display every day as I and my ever-changing family enjoy every step of the journey… even the hard times are sweeter when we face them together.

I’m thankful that my youthful, ignorant attraction for bad boys did not result in a marriage that would certainly have been doomed; and that, in my still-singleness, my children and I daily experience the loving care of our Great God who promises He will never leave us or forsake us and demonstrates over and over that He really is a Father to the fatherless. (Psalm 68:5)

(See more of my thoughts on being thankful for being still single in one of my earlier blog posts at: https://peapodfam.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/an-uncommon-reason-to-be-thankful/)

I’m thankful for the seemingly good guys I dated who hurt my heart by leading me on and then rejecting me for my past.  Yes, in my eagerness (read: desperation) to be married, I put much stock in their opinions of me and drew my significance from them instead of drawing from the wellspring of God’s grace.  Yet, through those pain-filled experiences God has formed within me a strength of character seasoned with His wisdom and has been used to hone His gift of discernment that is useful in guarding my family, as well as in the way He uses me to minister to others.

I’m thankful for a broken leg when I was tobogganing at 17 years old that yielded an eventual escape from a traumatic path.  The life-long limp I have is a constant reminder that God rescued me from the hands of an abuser.

Although there is nothing wrong with being thankful for wealth, comfort, health, family, and friends, the truth is that not everyone has all, or even one, of those blessings right now. 

Many during this season are filled with despair as they compare their own lives with those proclaiming their blessings.  So today, I am proclaiming my gratitude for the Not-So-Amazing Events that spared me from Horrible Events. 

It is my prayer that those who are feeling desperate right now will remember that even the most desperate times, in the hands of our Loving Savior, are ultimately transformed into Amazing Events… God is able to bring beauty from ashes. (Isaiah 61:3)

And so most of all, I am thankful that while I was still an enemy of God (living through some awful stuff), He chose me, called me, brought me to repentance, and paid for my sins with the sacrificial blood of His only Son, Jesus, and is keeping His promises to transform me (sanctify me) day by day.

Seeds of Faith
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” Romans 5:6-9

“A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation.” Psalm 68:5

“To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Romans 8:29-31

Copyright © 2014 Deborah Rice, PeaPodFamilyPress

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Tags: adoption, faith, foster care, Isaiah 61:3, Psalm 68:5, Romans 5:6-9, Romans 8:29-31, salvation, saved by grace, single mom

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