Who I Am Family Blog Series - Week 9

For the last post in this Family Blog Series called WHO I AM, we are going to end with one of my favorite practices. As a kid, my parents ingrained half of this idea in me, and the other half, I have had to wrestle with throughout my life. “Timmons are thankful people,” was a pretty powerful and consistent message growing up. This “thankful” way of living shaped so much of who I have become today, and I am so grateful for it (see, there I go:).

The problem (or opportunity for growth:) came when stuff started hitting the fan in my life. Was I supposed to be thankful in ALL circumstances? What does God actually care about? When I would thank Him for my car, or for the house we bought, or the nice meal that I was about to eat, did He really care about the details of those things? Or, did He really have a hand in those decisions and provisions? Or were most of those just things that I had worked hard for and earned? Does He just care about my hearts posture and not the details? Yup, this jacked my thankfulness practice up.

To take it to another whole level, where do we go with gratitude when “Shtuff happens?” Are we grateful for cancer diagnoses, divorce, relational wreckage, $ problems, death, migraines, anxiety, chronic pain, car problems, etc?

I am not going to answer these for you, because I trust that each of us are on our own journey with this stuff. But I will say, the more that I’ve been seeing Jesus in the Center of all of these things and working for my good, the less weight these questions have over me. So much of this comes down to trusting His intentions. Is He God, or is He not? And Is He good, or is He not

When Paul in Romans 8 says that “Jesus is working in all things for our good,” remember that in the next line he clarifies what “our good” means. “Our good” is to look more like Jesus, and that is definitely something that Jesus cares about.

In Luke 7:7-9 Jesus says:

“9 You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”

Point is this. God wants to give His kids good gifts, and He cares about the posture of your heart. Thankfulness is a key into the heart of God, and in its very nature, puts us in a proper humble posture. The more that we are grateful in all things (not for all things), the more often our hearts are in a beautiful posture.

10000 MINUTES Practice:

Because Jesus is at work in all things, for your good:

Practice Thankfulness in all circumstances all week long.