Category: Faith

One Year Post-College

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Exactly a year ago today, I graduated from college. Cue the tears because college was an amazing four years, and I still can’t believe it’s over. In the year since I graduated, my view on how special my college experience was has not changed. I hold the four years I spent in Bloomington, spending way more time with friends than at the library, hanging out every Thursday night in Woodburn 100, and the sweet friendships I developed on IU’s beautiful campus so close to my heart. But, that season ended a year ago. My life has gone on.

In the Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens says, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Maybe he was prophesying the last year of my life. Since May 2013, I’ve lived in three different cities, worked three different jobs, spent more money than I care to admit on clothes, moved into my first apartment where I was responsible for paying rent, paid off an eighth of my student loan, bought a car (ask me how I feel about car payments), ran a half marathon, hosted some sweet parties, experienced the most difficult transition of my life to date, applied for 50+ jobs, attended four weddings, threw some fun parties, had only a handful of weekends with no work, and joined a church. This year has brought some of my highest highs, but also some of my lowest lows. When you’re eating ice cream out of the tub on a Wednesday morning at 10:30AM while watching your second episode of West Wing for the day, you know you’ve hit a new low.

But the things I did pale in comparison to the most significant lesson I’ve learned.

Over and over again, I cried out to the Lord, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way.” Depending on the day, I sometimes continued, “But I’m happy at the way it’s turning out.” Some days I could do anything but cry into my pillow. It was a year of life not meeting my expectations. I had a pretty little picture in my head of what this year was supposed to look like. Needless to say, it has not looked like that pretty little picture. It hasn’t been neat, orderly, or pretty. It’s been messy, hard and beautiful. I jokingly refer to the person I was last spring as “young and dumb.” I just didn’t know any better. I saw what other people’s lives looked like, combined that with my own desires and then just expected.

But I take beautiful over pretty any day. This is not the first or the last time that life will not meet my expectations. Marriage is not a walk in the park. Parenting is not endless dandelion bouquets and Mother’s Day cards. The question is, what will I do when life fails to meet my expectations? Will I sulk and allow it to make me bitter? Or will I run hard in the arms of a God who continually exceeds my expectations?

The wisdom and intimacy I’ve gained with God by walking through the peaks and the valleys with Him this last year is far more special than any picture I had in my head of how my life was supposed to look.

It Was Worth It

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Saturday morning, I helped organize an information session on adopting from Latin America. We had families join us who were at all stages in the adoption process, including having finished their processes. If you know anything about adopting, you know that the process is long. No one understands setbacks, uncertainties, and waiting like adoptive parents. One of the adoptive moms said, about her daughter, “She was so worth it, I’d do it all over again, without a doubt.”

As I stood in church on Palm Sunday and listened to the worship band lead our church in worship, I was struck by how the woman’s words about her daughter are true of those of us who have been adopted into God’s family. At the end of this week, we’ll celebrate Easter; God’s declaration that sin is not the end of our story. Our past, present and future sins were paid for on the cross that fateful day 2,000 years ago and now, Jesus reigns from his true throne in heaven. Each year, on Easter, we celebrate Christ’s sacrifice; He reminds us that we are worth it.

The author of Hebrews says of Jesus, “for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” The joy is us, individually and collectively – believers, members of the Body of Christ. I can’t get the image of the triumphal entry out of my head today; the palms being waved and people shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.” All the while, Jesus knew what He was headed towards. He knew that this was the beginning of the end. At the end of the road was a painful death, but He chose to walk the road anyways. He eventually carried His own cross to His own crucifixion. And yet, it was His joy. It was worth it to Him. His death and resurrection declare that we were worth it.

Let’s not forget, that we did nothing to earn it. We mine as well have been given hammers to hammer the nails ourselves. We are worthy because of His sacrifice. Just like the little girl who was adopted did not have to earn her mother’s love for the process to be worth it, God saw us in our sins, at the beginning of time, and decided Jesus would still come. His love makes us worthy.

Just as the little girl’s identity changed from an orphan to a daughter, so did mine when I accepted Christ. Adoption is forever. I am part of God’s family for eternity. I am worth it because He says I am. I can’t earn a better spot in His family; I’m all in. This week, that’s the truth I want to live out as I prepare to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection. I want to honor Him and His sacrifice. He said I am worth it – will I do the same for Him?

Thoughts on a Feeling-filled Day

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This afternoon I made a wise decision to log off of social media and stop reading blogs for the remainder of the day. I have a terrible habit of letting things get to me. I can get so caught up in the words that other people are saying that I forget what’s true. I start running towards other people’s opinions and getting angry when others disagree with them. In today’s society, everyone has an opinion on everything. Or, if they’re like me, they have feelings about everything.

Everything I’ve read about World Vision has me paralyzed with feelings. Feelings of confusion, feelings of outrage, feelings of apathy; if it’s a negative feeling, in the past 12 hours I’ve felt it. And by the time I’ve sat down to write, the controversial decision has been reversed, but my feelings are still there. I want to blame someone for all of the chaos and hurt.

I keep coming back to one of the most significant conversations I’ve ever had. I sat across from a dear friend in the IMU Starbucks as she spoke truth into my life that I’ve never been able to let go of. We were talking about my life, my walk with Christ and the high standards I set for people. She looked me in the eyes and said, full of grace and truth, “Caitlin, you just don’t think you’re THAT bad.”

It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to hear, but has been the most formative and challenging. Because I am THAT bad. Pre-Jesus, I was an enemy of God. Even if I had been the only person on the planet, Christ still would have had to come and die a brutal death on the cross from my sins. The Apostle Paul says it like this, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). I am the worst. I couldn’t not sin tomorrow even if I tried.

But God, being rich in mercy and abounding in love, refused to let sin be the end of my story. In Jesus, He gave me an escape route. I did nothing to earn it. Nothing. I am a broken sinner in desperate need of a savior, and God provided Jesus. Grace does not make sense.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on anything. I can’t make theological arguments or even quote the correct scripture most of the time, but what I do know is that on either side of the argument, the way we talk matters. Where we talk from matters. I want to talk from a place of humility, remembering what God has saved me from and saves me from each and every day. A god who humbled Himself and made Himself nothing. He washed the dirty feet of the disciples and died a criminal’s death.

So in the midst of the chaos and confusion of my own heart and mind, I’ll cling to what I know and let God guide the rest. I have a feeling that God is going to care a whole lot more about my heart than where I stand on issues. I am loved by a gracious, all knowing, all-powerful God. He is using all things for His good.

God Does Not Waste Experience

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God does not waste experience.

It was a fact I had been reminded of countless times throughout my senior year of college and as I graduated. Whenever I opened up to someone about my struggle to find a job, the same person would look at me and say, “Caitlin, remember, God doesn’t waste experience.” Ladies and gentlemen, add that to the list of things not to tell a 22-year-old unemployed post-grad. It’s a beautiful truth, but in the midst of the struggle, it feels more like a mockery than a hope-inspiring truth about God. It’s been ten months since I graduated from college, and just this week have I started to really see how this truth has become true in my life.

In college, I spent a lot of time encouraging other college students to fill out surveys, I called these college students who were even the tiniest bit interested in Jesus and tried to meet up with them for coffee. In the CRU world, this is known as following-up. Over a cup of coffee, usually at the Starbucks in the union, I would ask the college student, often times a girl in a sorority, or a freshman girl, about her life, her spiritual background and her thoughts on God. Key during these interactions was listening. Before sharing anything about me, I would ask for permission to do so… Or so I was supposed to do. I longed to see the women across the table from me arrive at a new understanding of God on their own, seeing Jesus with their own eyes, not through the eyes of my own experiences.

Watching a woman “get it,” or understand God in a new way was the highlight of my weeks. So much so that I was mad that God did not call me into vocational ministry with CRU at the end of my senior year. I loved ministry. I was good at ministry. I loved being authentic, I loved planning bible studies, I loved watching lives changed by Jesus. I spent my sophomore and junior years of college telling people I was going to join staff with CRU. But The Call never came. As I left Bloomington in May, part of me started to believe that my experiences were a waste. I didn’t have a job and I felt as though the skills I developed as a student involved in CRU would not translate into a job.

I remember being so discouraged after an interaction with a pastor at my parents’ church that I sat in my car and cussed out God. The f-word went flying. I could not understand why God had cultivated such unique skills in me during college and yet I could not find a place willing to utilize such important skills. I was confused and losing hope. I did the only thing that sounded good at the time – I drove home and ate ice cream right out of the carton at 10:30 in the morning.

Fast forward to January 2014. After a couple months of working with and tracking prospective adoptive families, my boss called me into her office. During our talk, we decided that instead of sending emails, I was going to pick up the phone and start calling families. This idea was great in theory, but by the time I had returned to my front office desk and picked up the phone to start dialing, I had a pit in the bottom of my stomach. Fear of rejection filled my thoughts. “But wait,” I said to my co-worker, “I’ve done this before. When I was involved in CRU at IU, I would call girls to follow-up.” As the words came out of my mouth I started to laugh.

At the beginning of February, I sat in a business development meeting at work listening to my boss and co-workers think through where I can be growing as a company. As a member of the business development team, I am now in charge of community outreach; the very essence of what got me involved in CRU as a freshman. During this meeting, I was taken back to Friday afternoon servant team meetings when the CRU leaders would talk about how we could better reach the IU campus. I said a silent prayer of thanks and did my best to participate in the meeting.

On Friday, I sat down with a co-worker and we were talking through some of the hang-ups families have before the take the leap and begin the adoption process. She reminded me how important it is to ask whoever it may be questions and to ask permission before sharing my opinion. The light went on in my head yet again.

I always knew that my experience with CRU at IU would come in handy because of the persistence and faith it cultivated in me. Even when things were rough and I was tempted to walk away, God would remind me that He was moving in my life and in the lives of those around me. What I didn’t realize at the time was that God truly doesn’t waste even the smallest of experiences. My job requires me reach out to new people. It requires me to pick up the phone to speak with people who may not be sold on ideas I want to speak with them about. It requires me to follow-up with people, invite them to events and introduce them to a new story line in their lives, one that will alter their families and others.

Much has changed in the last ten months, but much has stayed the same. One thing that has stayed and will remain the same throughout eternity – God does not and will not waste experience.

10 Lessons for 22

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I’m a big fan of birthdays. I like the party aspect, but I was explaining to a friend that it’s a lot more than that. Over the course of 365 days, there are so many moments that don’t get celebrated. Moments that simply pass us by without much attention, but it’s in those uncelebrated, ordinary moments that God is shaping us more into who He wants us to be. We are learning valuable lessons in those moments. My birthday is simply a celebration, not of me, but of those moments over the last year that deserve reflection & celebration. As I’ve reflected over the past year of my life, a year filled with 2 moves, 3 new jobs, a graduation, a relationship, a break-up, 3 vacations, a new cousin to be and countless other special things, I’ve learned a lot. Lessons that are special and important. So without further ado, ten of the lessons I’ve learned as a 22 year old!

  1. I’m emotionally attached to television shows. I cried when I finished the entire series of West Wing. I watched 2.5 seasons of Scandal in one week. I am emotionally attached to television. I can go weeks without watching cable, but Netflix is another story.
  1. Sin is serious business. The unintended consequences of sin can destroy relationships and a lack of fellowship with Jesus. I must make a decision to go on the offensive against things that have the potential to distance me from Jesus.
  1. I look forward to the day when I will worship Jesus with people of every culture, nation, tribe and tongue. Until then, I want to surround myself with believers from all over the world with different backgrounds. It’s God’s plan for us to be one body of believers and I’m thankful to be able to see part of His heart on the topic.
  1. This summer I served at a food pantry once a week. All I wanted to do was say, “Woe is me,” at least once a week this summer, but serving others puts things into perspective. I built relationships with those I was serving and got to read gospel tracts to kiddos. I learned that being blessed is outside of current circumstances, but instead something ingrained into the identity of being a Christian.
  1. I’ve always loved my family, but I can’t said that I’ve always liked them, we love to press each other’s buttons and get under each other’s skin. This year, there was a noticeable shift in my relationship with my sister and brother. Emilee and Jake are far funnier than me and just overall beautiful people with huge hearts, and I loved living under the same roof with them this summer, spending time learning from them and watching them grow.
  1. I’ve learned that independence is a gift. A special gift that must be learned through circumstances that may not be of my choosing. Learning to give myself pep talks, take risks and go places all on my own has been one of the most valuable skills I’ve learned in 2013. I make pretty good company for myself, and get more comfortable and confident the more I do on my own. I’m thankful for a season of independence and watching the ways it is transforming me into a healthier individual who can confidently walk with Christ.
  1. It’s the Kingdom or the world. I can’t have my feet in both places. I must choose. Where will I be all in? This year has shown me that I would love to go all in for the Kingdom, to live fully for God and not for me, but man, I fall short. I’m thankful for grace, and for the desire to do things for God. Lord, help me live fully for the Kingdom, ready to give up all things for you, and go where you lead me, not where my selfishness and comfort tempt me.
  1. Injustice fires me up. Especially when it’s against women and children. The statistics are staggering, but the stories are even more heart-breaking. I keep asking God to help me be part of the solution, not part of the problem. May my life be about reconciliation and redemption for victims whose innocence has been taken unjustly.
  1. While in college, it felt like every other weekend there was something to celebrate or a reason to be excited. Once you graduate from college, the reasons to celebrate are often times more significant – weddings, new jobs, raises, babies – but they are less frequent. This fall, I’ve vowed to celebrate even the small things, trying to make a mundane and the ordinary something beautiful. I’ve learned that even the small stuff, however ordinary it may be, is a cause for celebration.
  1. Honest, genuine community is difficult to find, so when you do find it, hold onto it. I’ve referred to my community in Indianapolis this year as a “soft place to land”; I went from being surrounded by almost all my best friends in the spring, to no community at home during the summer and now there’s a happy medium. Fighting for friendships is worth it. I’m thankful for friends who will eat dinner with me, come to events I throw and share their lives with me – no matter how far apart we may live. I’m thankful that community on earth paint just a mere imitation of what fellowship with Jesus will look like in Heaven.

Gift Wrapping

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Friday at MLJ, we had a gift exchange at our Christmas party. Everyone was invited to bring a gift and throughout the exchange, you could either pick an unopened gift or steal a gift from someone who had already picked. I was predictable and brought jewelry from J.Crew to give. When I purchased them, they came in a jewelry bag, a nice black box and then a small J.Crew bag. The J.Crew bag said J.Crew on it, obviously, but was nice enough to give as a gift bag. That was the plan. Until yesterday. We were talking around work about how if it was appropriate to not officially wrap our gift, but bring it in a nice gift bag that may give away where the gift was from. I was suddenly self-conscious about my nice J.Crew gift bag. Had I had extra time and didn’t work two jobs, I probably would have gone out and bought a different bag for my gift. I did not, and today everything went fine. No one commented on the packaging, they loved the bracelets. It’s silly to think I almost spent time, money and energy on packaging.

I’ve had three different conversations this week that have made me reflect on the way we wrap our testimonies – stories of what God is doing and has done in our lives – the same way that I felt the pressure to rewrap my gift exchange gift. I’ve had a version on this conversation three times this week. What is this fascination with making things look “good”? We want nice, neat before and after testimonies where the after is dramatically different from the before. I was addicted to porn, now I don’t even struggle, because of Jesus. I had an eating disorder, now I don’t struggle with control in any area of life, because of Jesus. I was never in a relationship where we weren’t having sex, now I don’t even struggle with purity, because of Jesus. If one of these is your story, I celebrate with you. God can deliver us out of those strongholds. It is a beautiful thing!

But what if you story is more like mine? Even once I found Jesus, I struggled to manufacture control of my life through eating. While I’ve seen victory, when things are tough, I’m still tempted to grasp for control in whatever way I can, sometimes wanting to go to unhealthy lengths with food or exercise. Is my story not a story of victory? Is God not at work in my life because I struggle? Do I need to re-wrap my story?

No. I see God to be so faithful in the struggle. It is in the struggle that I am reminded that dependency on God not self-sufficiency is the Christian life. I should be reminded everyday that the gift inside of the bag is the same –grace, freedom, life with Jesus – why should I re-wrap it? I want to embrace my brokenness because it brings me back to the cross. I want those who I do community with to feel safe to bring things into the light before they’re completely resolved. If I wanted to know everything that someone loves in their life, I don’t need to look further than their social media, but over coffee, the phone or a glass of wine, I want to know the real truth, without the pressure to re-wrap it.

Here’s to telling stories that aren’t quite complete yet. Here’s to celebrating the struggle because it makes us more like Christ. Here’s to living in freedom of not having to put our testimonies in better gift-wrapping.

Worship

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The Gospels tell countless stories of a person’s encounter with Jesus and subsequent life change. Small moments drastically altered the lives of men and women. John 4 tells one of these stories. A Samarian woman comes to a well at noon (to avoid the crowds due to shame) to fill her water jug. She gets way more than what she was expecting when Jesus approaches her at the well. He asks her questions that only her and God would know, proving His omniscience. He also tells her that He is the only thing that will satisfy her needs, He is the only water she can drink without growing thirsty again. He even tells her that He is the Messiah that she has been waiting for. The story could end here and still be significant, but it doesn’t, thankfully, because one my favorite verses comes next:

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people.” (John 4:28)

The first part of the verse reminds me of the series finale of Friends, when Rachel says about Ross, “He got off the plane.” The moment is climactic and every time I watch it, I jump up and down because its one of the few moments that feels like things end up the way they’re supposed to. Anyways, the woman leaves her water jug at the well; she had spent the better part of her life continually going to the well to fill the water jug. By leaving the water jug behind, she left her old way of life behind. She realized that what she had spent her life trying to do for satisfaction would never satisfy, and she left it behind.

Equally as significant is what she left it behind to do. Remember the woman came to the well at noontime to avoid people and potential judgment? That same woman, after encountering Jesus, goes into town to tell people about Him. She was so transformed and affected that she could not, not share her experience with the people she was hours before avoiding. She immediately becomes a witness for Christ, out an overflow of her worship of Him.

I like to be busy. I like to do. I like checking things off lists. I like setting goals and achieving them. All of these things are good, but they can prevent me from worship. Worship, in the life of a Christian, needs to be more than singing along to songs, but instead needs to be a heart posture. A moment by moment surrender to God and His ways. A constant desire to make God’s name known, and to enjoy Him for who He is. For me, this doesn’t happen when I plan too much, evaluate situations based on succeeding and failing, or focus on my to-do list. I want to encounter Jesus every day and be changed continually. I want my worship of Him to overflow into all areas of my life, and conversations with people daily.

May I be like the woman at the well, who after a short encounter with Jesus leaves what she thought would satisfy her and took off to tell people about how He changed her life. May my worship of Jesus be my witness for Him. May I stop worrying and striving, and start worshipping. May worshipping the Lord be the goal of my day, my week, and my life.

Wrestling

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About every six months, I sit down with the Lord and process through what I believe about drinking, how that holds up against what scripture says about it and what my behavior reflects about my beliefs. In full disclosure, these sit downs often happen after a night of too much alcohol, a night of watching someone else consume too much alcohol or me feeling left out or anxious because I was not drinking as much as the people around me. Drunkenness, however you define it, prevents me from being filled with the Spirit, and is a sin. And all sin is equal. All sin prevents me from experiencing fellowship with Jesus. So during these sit downs, I ask the Lord to remove any condemnation, and simply let me process. I ask myself questions such as: why do I drink in the first place? When do I find myself wanting to drink more than what I usually do? What are some outcomes of drinking more than I usually do? If I heard the Lord ask me to stop drinking today, what would my response be? Who is it appropriate to drink around? If there are people who it’s not appropriate to drink around, am I willing to not drink? Why do I feel awkward not drinking when others around me are drinking? The list goes on and on.

Last weekend, I actually wondered out loud to a friend about some of these questions. While she and I have different experiences with alcohol and different opinions, I left the conversation feeling challenged and freed. Sin is real, it’s not something to be messed around with. As I’ve learned in my own life, sin clouds my judgment, sin makes me question my identity, and sin isolates me from community. I need to constantly run away from sin, not toe the line of how much I can get away with. These truths challenged me.

In the original Hebrew, Israel means “he wrestles with God”. Israel, God’s chosen nation and people, who He named, He named “he wrestles with God.” Some often I can feel guilty about processing through things and having sit downs with God because I can start believing the lie that I must blindly follow. And in some situations, I am called to blindly follow, but in others, I have to wrestle with what surrender looks like in my life.

Let me let you in a secret: when I wrestle through the smaller stuff such as drinking, and the larger stuff, like what calling God has on my life, I’m in good company. The Israelites wrestled. Wrestling and surrender are not mutually exclusive. Just because I’m asking the questions, doesn’t mean I’m not trusting. In fact, in some cases, when the wrestling stops, that’s when sin really takes root. So for all of you wrestling through big & small questions alike, keep wrestling. Turn to the Bible, turn to trusted friends who love Jesus and be willing to go deep in your heart and hear answers that scare you. Just don’t stop wrestling until you come to an answer that will lead to greater fellowship with Jesus. I am meant to experience intimacy with Jesus and to let Him transform me more and more into His image. And perhaps, that means there will be some wrestling along the way.

Tomorrow

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When I was younger, and living in Japan, there was a family with two adopted daughters from China. I remember Emilee asking my mom why the girls didn’t look like their mom, and my mom explained that these two girls had been adopted. I don’t remember the girls’ names, but the more my mom told us about adoption, the more my 7 year-old brain was convinced that I would one day adopt children. This desire to adopt only grew as we moved back to the U.S. and in our new neighborhood, three families adopted daughters. By the time I was in high school, I knew Angelina Jolie needed to watch her back because I wanted to be an Ambassador to UNICEF, just like her.

My heart broke for orphans when I traveled to Monterrey, Mexico with Back2Back Ministries and I saw the devastating long-term effects of being abandoned. My junior year of college, I learned a great deal about sex trafficking and then spent the summer interning with Back2Back Ministries, I began to truly believe in adoption. I believe it changes children’s lives. It gives children opportunities they could only dream about.

Children are special, and deserve to be treated with value. Adoption helps marginalized children gain extraordinary experiences.

Tomorrow I start my first big girl job, with an adoption agency. It was a journey that has had numerous detours and I don’t know where I’ll ultimately end up, but tonight I rejoice. God has written on my heart a desire to serve His children. I don’t have the patience to teach, I don’t get to be a missionary yet, I can’t do the medicine thing, but He has crafted something special for me. Something that will build my skills and grow my heart. I’m thankful, and confident that God knows what He’s doing. Tomorrow is the start in another chapter in the adventure God and I are on together.

“The place God calls you to is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” – Frederick Buechner

Practicing Thankfulness

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“You can either let it make you bitter or better.” It’s a phrase I’ve heard countless times over the course of my life. I’ve sat in some disappointment this summer, mourned some could-have-beens and cried more tears than I knew I could. As August winds down, I feel like a different person than I was in April and May. I wouldn’t say a better person, and I can’t put my finger on what exactly is different, but as I step into yet another transition, I’m different.

I had a conversation in passing at work in June with a co-worker that rocked me. She was sharing with me about the end of her marriage, and it struck me. I cried on the way home, humbled. It was that night that I decided that instead of being upset and cynical, I needed to choose to be thankful. Thankful for the no’s God had told me both professionally and personally. Thankful for the unsettling season I was currently in, and thankful for the ways I was confident the Lord would provide in such an unsettling season. Slowly I began to notice changes in myself.

Paul writes to the Thessalonians, “Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:13-14). As I’ve started to learn, thankfulness prevents bitterness, discontentment and jealousy from taking root in my heart. Thankfulness reminds me who’s in charge… not me, but God – the same God who knows the ins and outs of my heart is working all things for my good. Even when my circumstances lead me to believe otherwise, I always have something to be thankful for.

Thankfulness very quickly turns into praise. No matter what I’m going through, I can praise God for His character and His faithfulness; they never change. There have been numerous mornings I’ve sat down this summer to journal and felt so in awe of God that I just thanked Him for everything. Even the yuck. I’ve started to see that when I thank God for the yuck, the yuck becomes less yucky.

I don’t think thankfulness is a lesson to learn, but instead a practice, not dissimilar from a spiritual discipline. Thankfulness and surrender are intertwined; in order to be fully surrendered to God, I need to acknowledge His goodness and His almighty power, which is impossible to do without being thankful. A thankful heart surrenders and obeys quicker than a bitter one. So if I want to obey God and be surrendered to God, then I must practice thankfulness, in all circumstances. I serve a great and mighty God, a God who refused to let my sin be the end of the story, so I will seek to practice thankfulness, even when it’s difficult.

How do you practice thankfulness?