Coping Strategy 2: Giveing Tangible Thanks

COPING STRATEGY 2: Giving Tangible Thanks

Rushing out the door with a cup of coffee you spill precious ounces of caffeine down the stairs and onto your pants. You step in dog pooh the kids didn't clean up from the darling beagle you never wanted but they all swore they would take care of if you'd only buy her. Sitting your cup on the dash you look up from starting the car to see that the birds your wife so dearly appreciates for raising their young every summer in your garage have anointed your windshield with their excreted offerings. Your pants are stained, the car smells like doggie do, you can't see out the windshield, and you are late again for class.

The scriptures tell us to give thanks "in" every situation and "for" every situation and do it with a grateful heart. We can always give thanks that Jesus died for our sins, our sins are forgiven, we have entered into eternal life from the moment we are born again, we have abundant life, etc. and I could go on and on. However, those benefits and blessings don't seem very real when you are exhausted, constantly not doing what you want to do because of the demands of others, and animals (both domesticated and wild) seem to have joined a conspiracy to get you. So, how do I give thanks and how does this spiritual imperative change my attitude in the here and now?

Babies crying, siblings at war, bills to pay, unsatisfied mates, and unrepentant creatures are all way too real. So, make your thanks real, tangible. I really like this word, "tangible." It means "able to be touched or perceived through the sense of touch; capable of being understood and evaluated, and therefore regarded as real." Too often the spiritual blessings noted in paragraph two, are not really "capable of being understood" at a visceral level and therefore don't always relieve stress when I give thanks for them. When you are at the survival level, you don't philosophize very well. When your stress inducers are all too tangible, start your thanks at that level!

My "tangible thanks" include:

"Thank you Lord, I don't come home to an empty house."

"Thank you Lord, I have a car that's paid for. It may not be a Ferrari but it works and it's mine."

"Thank you Lord, I have food and I don't have to worry about breakfast tomorrow morning."

"Thank You people care enough about my ability or wisdom or approval to interrupt me--again and again and again..."

"After reading Spurgeon's Eccentric Preachers, I thank you Lord I was born in 1952 and not 1852!"

"Lord, thank you for opening my eyes to see that I am truly blessed with REAL, Tangible people and things!"

The picture shows our Ai No Kesshin/Loving Decision Office (our dinner table). Sarah, Lew, & Ako are working frantically to get a finance report ready for the Shizuoka City Hall.