An Unxpected Christmas Present

Something really neat happened yesterday.  As soon as it happened, I knew I would have to write about it.

First, some background...

Ann Voscamp is another mentor in my life who doesn't know me, though we have a lot in common.  She, like me, is a homeschooling mother of 6 (well, I have 8, no big deal!) and lives on a farm, like me, here in Ontario where she writes a blog, like me.  That's about where the similarities stop and the differences begin...She is now a famous New York Times best-selling author of more than one book and has a huge following on her blog!  Me, not so much! 

I honestly only read her blog about 3 times a year and haven't even read any of her books!  But, I had the privilege of hearing her speak once almost 3 years ago when she was more of a commoner and spoke at homeschool conferences.  The short hour I heard her speak was another life-changing moment for me.

She spoke about joy and why so few of us have it.  She spoke of something called "eucharisteo" which is the Greek word in the Bible meaning "grace" or "to give thanks".  She described how Jesus took the bread in the "Feeding of the 5000" story and saw it as grace and gave thanks.  It was at this point that the miracle happened.  She must have repeated that line several times throughout her talk because it has stuck with me and has really started to impact my whole way of thinking.  Here it is again in my words...

When you give thanks for everything, just as Jesus did with the bread and even when he was about to die on the cross, then the miracle is imminent.   The miracle with the bread, of course, was that it was multiplied and not only did it feed everyone, but there was some left over!  The miracle on the cross, was not that he died, but that he rose again and paid the penalty for our sins - forever!

You cannot see how life-changing this is for yourself until you start applying it 100x a day.  I actually think we've all known of this idea before as we know the Bible says to be thankful.  I'm not sure why this struck me so differently this time.  Perhaps it was because of the line that followed that is not in the Bible, per se, but the principle is definitely in the Bible - "the miracle is imminent".  I think it also resonated with me, because at that point in my life, I was really struggling.

I am usually a fairly positive person.  I am usually a fairly thankful person, but there were times about four years ago where I was not that way, say, in the middle of the night when my baby is screaming for no good reason and I'm not getting any sleep and I'm feeling extreme frustration.  I wasn't stopping to be thankful there and there was certainly no miracle imminent.  Nope.  Not a happy person.  It was during that really hard time in our life when we were building the house and it was just one more thing I had to deal with.  It was one thing to deal with stress during the day, but to get no break from it during the night was leaving me absolutely loopy.

But then, after I heard Ann speak.  I thought, "This is revolutionary thinking!" and I was determined to try and apply this to myself the next time I found myself in a situation that seemed hopeless or in a place that seemed unnatural to be thankful, like in the middle of the night!

I had an opportunity almost immediately of course - that night with the screaming baby again.  I immediately went to his room and took care of him, making sure he had whatever it was that he thought he needed, and then went several more times that night.  This time, when I would get out of my cozy bed, instead of feeling the immediate sense of dread and frustration that used to come, I started thanking God for him, for his ability to cry to alert me that he needed me, for the privilege of having a baby when so many don't have that privilege, for the roof over his head, for the crib he could lay in, not a dirt floor, for the warm heat, for a healthy mom, for the fact he was crying for a silly reason, not because he was in a hospital deathly ill........do you see?  The list went on and on.  As I did this, two miracles happened - I was never frustrated again when he woke me up and if I felt the frustration come on, thankfulness immediately alleviated this feeling.  Ann reminded us you really can only feel one emotion at a time, so by being thankful, the other negative emotion simply isn't allowed to be there!  The second miracle is that at some point he just started sleeping through the night!  And not because of anything I did, it just "happened"!  That was some miracle, let me tell you.

This has been a principle now that I live by as I have seen so many miracles I cannot begin to describe them all to you.  I now literally have developed the habit of being thankful as soon as Renaissance Man walks in the room with bad news of some kind, in my head, I'll start to say, "I don't understand what is happening here, Lord, but I thank you that you are in control and that the miracle is imminent."

That was a lot of background, but I think it was super important and I really wanted to share it as it is so helpful for a mom and wife to develop this in herself and also in her kids.  I even try to get RM to think this way as it is so unnatural, but it relieves so much stress.

So now, another example of this that just happened.  A few days ago, RM noticed that the older horse didn't seem to be doing too well and seemed to have pain in his foot.  The immediate question that came to his mind was cashflow!!!  If you call in a vet, it is a hefty bill just to look at him and times are tight right now, so what to do?  He did call the vet and the vet actually suggested that he call a farrier, a "horse foot doctor", which is waaaay cheaper.  It was still a feeling of dread that started to come over me.  I knew I needed to catch it.  I could feel it start to creep up and it was getting my mind into a panic mode if I wasn't careful.  I could start to see the money draining out of the account.  I started to picture what that looked like and it was leaving no money for essentials....so my choices were to either nip those thoughts in the bud or get the awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that does no one any good.  That was what I chose to do - be thankful, for some reason, that the horse wasn't well.  What miracle could possibly be imminent?

Farriers are hard to find.  It seems it is a field of study that few are getting into these days, but if you have horses, it is essential to know one.  My oldest son is very interested in this field and last year for Christmas, when we were spending money, we bought him a very expensive textbook from a farrier school down in the States.  The guy who runs the school is a solid believer and wrote a lovely inscription to my son with Scripture as well.  This son has read the book and is quite familiar with all things horsey now and had even done his own assessment on the horse, so when the farrier was coming, we knew this boy would be right there beside the farrier watching everything he did.

Sure enough, when the farrier arrived, I quickly introduced him to my son, explaining that he was very interested in becoming a farrier and, if he ok with this, he'd be right there the whole time.  I then asked him a couple of questions, like how old was he when he started, that kind of thing.  He seemed very nice. 

Out they went and within a few minutes, they'd determined it wasn't a foot thing at all, but just a quirk the horse had developed with age that wasn't causing him any pain actually.  If anything, we just needed to watch him.  He might need surgery in the future, but at this moment in time, he was fine.  Great news! Then, the farrier left, or so I thought.

Within a couple minutes, I heard the door being knocked on again.  It was the farrier, must have forgot something.  He was holding some tools in his hand.  "Hey, I know you mentioned your son is interested in becoming a farrier.  I have this old leather farrier apron I used to use and these tools (a horse hoof pick and a huge hoof file).  They're just sitting in the back of my truck and I don't need them.  May as well go to someone who could use them."  WHAT??!!  Are you handing us a gift we didn't ask for?  Are you an angel?  Do you have any idea what that means to us?  I nearly cried (I write that a lot, don't I?).

The miracle was imminent - or should I say, the miracles.......look at the amazing list....

1.  That was not a cheap gesture - those items alone would have cost hundreds of dollars if we'd bought them new ourselves, I'm sure. 

2.  The timing was unbelievable, especially in light of last year's gift.  It would have been the most natural next gift to buy our son after first purchasing the textbook - tools would have been next on the list. 

3.  He had NO IDEA that we weren't buying gifts this year. 

4.  The horse got supposedly sick around Christmas time (this could have happened in the spring or fall - why at Christmas time?) 

5.  The horse wasn't sick after all - saved us a TON of money.

6.  It just furthered my son's interest in pursuing that kind of work and I believe that is exactly how God guides families as they pray for their children's futures.  He uses circumstances like this to confirm interests to both the parent and child that says, yes, this is something I want to pursue.

I loved it.  I wanted to hug the man.   I felt he'd been dropped out of heaven and put on the planet just for us that day.  I was in such shock and could only stand there in awe.

These miracles happen ALL THE TIME in my life now that I have adopted this new way of thinking.  I can give you countless examples of this, countless.  I'm not exaggerating and most of them have happened in the last four years since I've changed my way of thinking. 

I am even thankful for the debt and this journey we are on as God keeps showing us himself through it all.  I am thankful for being needier emotionally, needier financially, needier spiritually, because of all the things I'm being shown and because of all the lessons I'm learning.  So many miracles.  I shake my head in gratitude, in awe.  God doesn't have to do things like this for us, but he chooses to.  It keeps us going!

Take this lesson to heart - apply it to yourself, today, right now.  Take whatever is on your mind, that is weighing you down, and turn it into thankfulness and watch, the miracle will be imminent.