A Story of Real Life Giving Thanks, episode 162

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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And as I always say, be sure to write down anything you want to remember and apply in your life.

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You know, if you have listened to many of my podcasts, then I love to encourage all of us to give thanks in everything.

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And I know that I just did a couple of episodes talking about that specific thing, giving thanks in everything.

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But today, I decided I would give you an example of how I live that out.

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I got to practice what I preach in real life last week.

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And though this story is not about a prodigal, it's certainly a practice to live out before your prodigal or anyone you hope never becomes a prodigal.

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I was flying to Montana to spend Thanksgiving with my daughter's family. She and her husband have three teenage boys and two elementary age kids.

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They are all wonderful. And I usually, and again, have great conversations with each of them because I really am intentional to talk with them.

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We played several board games, not my favorite, but theirs, and went to church and lunch after church.

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We just had a wonderful time.

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But this story begins before I arrived. As you know, airplane seats are a little snug.

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At one point, I opened my purse to pull my phone out. In that purse, I have a small RFID wallet.

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It's brown. It's zippered clothes.

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So it and it contains all of the cards that I might ever need credit cards, health cards, anything that I have a card for.

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Apparently, as I was closing my purse, I did not notice that my small brown wallet had tumbled out onto the floor beneath my seat in the plane.

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My daughter met me at the airport and I had all of my luggage.

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Unbelievably, I went carry on and I had my purse. As we were driving to CVS for her to pick up something, I decided I should get something because I don't breathe well in cold air because I have asthma.

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I noticed my little brown wallet was not there.

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I searched thoroughly twice, took everything out of my purse. It was not there.

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What did I say? I said, thank you, Lord. Several times because my level of panic was rising because I know I'm to give thanks and everything.

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And even as I dreaded the hassle of having to cancel all those cards and get new ones, I said, thank you, Lord.

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When we arrived at her house, my daughter's house, I immediately called the airport lost and found a wonderful young woman searched various places called the different places where it might have gone,

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including my flight location and the security people. No one had it.

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So she gave me the Delta number to call, which I did three times over the next couple of hours.

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I called Delta and left a nice message and my number saying, please call me and tell me you have my wallet.

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And I said, thank you, Lord, each time, assuring the Lord that I knew that he knew where my wallet was and please would he lead me to it.

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The kids got home from school. I told them the whole story and again said, thank you, Lord.

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They were amazed that would not have been what they would have said.

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After dinner, I received a call from Delta when the plane was being cleaned.

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A worker found my wallet under the seat and turned it in.

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Delta staff put it in a big bag and that went to the front check in counter and into a safe.

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I was pretty impressed that they put it in a safe.

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They said I could come and claim it in the next few hours or in the morning and it would be there.

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Just show my ID. So two of those teen boys drove me through the snow and ice to the airport.

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It's a good thing I couldn't have found my way and I probably would have ended up in a snow bank.

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So they went to the airport with me and they went in with me.

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I showed my ID and the man at the desk went back to the safe, pulled out that bag and handed me my wallet.

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And he was so happy to be able to give it to me and I was so happy to receive it.

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I thanked him profusely and I thanked God.

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And I talked with the boys all the way home about giving thanks in everything.

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Not only is it a command in Scripture to give thanks in everything, but it does wonderful things.

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It sets my heart and mind at ease.

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It gives me peace and it grows my trust in God.

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And yes, if my prayers and desires are answered, I can say thank you with overflowing gratitude.

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And if the outcome is not what I would choose, I trust that God is doing a good work to grow the likeness of Jesus in me.

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And the extra blessing was that I got to talk about it with each of my grands, some of the two younger ones together and each of the older ones individually,

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so that they can take a step closer to believing that God is always working in us to grow our character, our trust in him, our likeness to Jesus.

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And so that they can begin to practice giving thanks in all things, recognizing that even if it doesn't turn out the way we want,

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if God doesn't make it happen the way we want, we can still trust him in that process.

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Sometimes it brings healing and hope to our relationships when they see us not in our natural way to respond to things we don't like,

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but in a supernatural response that demonstrates the beautiful work of God in us.

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And so I say to the parents of particularly some kids that are around you all the time, and they've seen you when you don't always respond well to things.

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They've heard you when your temper rises and your voice gets louder and they're the object of what you're saying.

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It's really good when they can see you with peace, with assurance that God is still in control, and that you can say to God,

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thank you, even in something that you don't like, even in something that's very hard.

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So let me ask, is there something you would want to thank God for now?

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Surely there's something good going on in your life, maybe even in the life of your prodigal.

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And you can say thank you, Lord, for progress. Thank you, Lord, for some good choices.

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But also that could easily be something hard.

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And Christmas time, holiday time often brings to the surface some of the stresses that we're experiencing.

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And often we find ourselves at odds with our loved ones during the holiday time.

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They disappoint us. We disappoint them.

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And so I would encourage you, if there's something difficult going on, that you would be sure to thank God.

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And if you can happen to do that in front of your loved ones, it might give them a new perspective and a better relationship with you.

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Because they see you trusting God even when things don't happen the way you want.

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Next week, I'm going to give you some more that's going to, I hope, be helpful during the Christmas season.

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In the meantime, just give thanks to God, no matter what happens or how it turns out.

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Trust Him that He's working in you and maybe in your prodigal as well.

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God bless you.