Tag Archives: negative

One Act of Thanksgiving When Things Go Wrong

What kind of people are we when all we ever do is complain?

Not good people. Not friendly people. Not the kind of people you want to be around.

I feel like that’s what we’ve descended to. We complain about the cashier. We whine about the business that we think screwed us over. We rant about not getting the kind of service we think we deserve. We scream about the idiot politician.

Sometimes I think social media just magnifies it all.

That’s not the kind of person I want to be. I’m tired of being the person who complains that the express cashier at Target is going so slow because he insists on scanning every item before bagging, a process that involves juggling the items on the tiny counter space he has because it was freakin’ designed for him to immediately bag each item after scanning it. Clearly the holiday help is not as well trained or as well practiced.

I seriously stood there getting so annoyed at this poor Target cashier. I’m tired of being negative all the time.

If I’m that negative over something stupid, what happens when it’s something that matters?

“One act of thanksgiving when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well.” -John of the Cross

Those words came to Madeleine L’Engle when her granddaughter was hit by a truck. L’Engle was across the country and opened her prayer book before bed. Two things fell out. One was a picture of her granddaughter from a few weeks before, the other was a card with those challenging words from John of the Cross. L’Engle confesses in Walking on Water that she had to make that act of thanksgiving.

I wonder what she was thankful for?

It was 10 days before L’Engle’s granddaughter regained consciousness and they knew she would recover.

I want to be the kind of person who is thankful, not just when life is good and it’s easy to be thankful, but also when life is dumping on us and it’s so very, very hard.

  • I’m thankful for a giant white dome that went up in my city this year and enabled me to go running in the middle of January, which is not an easy thing in Minnesota.
  • I’m thankful that today is Pajama Day and Lexi is so excited.
  • I’m thankful that after a minor fever and a day at home, Lexi’s temperature went back down and she was beyond excited to go back to school.
  • I’m thankful that Milo still takes a nap.
  • I’m thankful that Milo can turn almost anything into a dragon, give it a name and decide what breed it is.
  • I’m thankful for a stack of good books from the library.
  • I’m thankful for the Star Wars socks I got for Christmas that allow me to put laundry off one more day.