Thanksgiving and Humility?

Whoooa!!! Watch out, Anna’s gonna blog… yikes!!! It’s been a while, do I still remember how to do this?

Just write what’s on your heart, right?

Ok, I can do that.

Honestly, I’ve got a heart that’s a little full right now so this should work out.

-News Flash--This week is Thanksgiving(I know, I know…really??) :)

Most posts around this time of year are all about how much we have to be grateful for and how thankful the blogger is about this and that.  Well, this one might take a little different spin.

As most of you know, I teach.  I do it for a living.  I teach spunky 13 year olds and I teach crazy 18-20 year olds.  I love it, I love to teach.  In fact, can’t imagine doing anything else.

Well, this afternoon on my lunch break from teaching those spunky teenagers I was reading a devotional by John Piper.  And my heart instantly began to trickle full of thoughts of gratefulness. Now, this wasn’t the afore mentioned, typical devotion on being thankful or grateful, it had a different spin.

The Bible warns that ‘in the last days there will come times of stress.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful’ (2 Tim 3;1-2)

Side note- looking around the world today how sad is it that these things are so evident, it makes my heart hurt…anyway…

It is later pointed out that gratitude is the opposite of all of these 'ugly' things.  Further, the reason for this is that the feeling of gratitude is a feeling of being humbled.

In this life we have done nothing that is good, not one thing.  We deserve death.  We are condemned.  We have no reason or right to be arrogant or proud.

BUT

We have the grace of a loving God who has given everything so that we may experience life, so that we are not condemned, so that we can show goodness and show love.

If that is not the definition of humble, I don’t know what is.

As I think to the lives that I am blessed to interact with everyday, whether it be the middle schoolers, the athletes, my family or even myself.  I pray that I am humbled to be in a situation where I can love on them, walk with them, encourage them and impact their lives in a grater way.

When I think about what it really means to be thankful on Thursday, I will be looking through a lens of humility because ultimately I deserve nothing I have and I’m grateful for a God who loves me bigger than I will ever understand.