Reflections on Gratitude, episode 99

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right here at When You Love a Prodigal, and also help and hope for your own life journey. My name is Judy Douglass, and I'm your host for When You Love a Prodigal. I hope that our look at the mercy of God over the past four weeks, his mercy toward us, and his mercy he wants to pour out on our prodigals through us was transforming for you. And I would ask, how have you applied it? And today and next week, episodes 99 and 100, still hard for me to believe.

0:50 I will be sharing with you some personal reflections from my life, my years with a prodigal, and most recently, a little bit on the loss of my husband. Today I want to emphasize a very familiar message from scripture, give thanks in everything. I know we've talked about it some before, but I find it's essential to keep making progress on that. Learning to say thank you to God has transformed my life. I believe it can do the same for you, even on the hardest days with your prodigal.

1:34 I'm going to ask you to join me on a brief journey through my seven decades of life. Hopefully, my gratitude journey will bless and encourage you. So be sure to jot down anything that God sparks in your mind, alerts you, this is something just for you. Now, I haven't always been a grateful person. Growing up, all I really wanted was my own way. And well, I was grateful when I got it, but I wasn't very nice when I didn't.

2:16 I am especially thankful therefore that God didn't leave me there. He has taught me over and over the need for and blessings from giving thanks in all things. A few days ago, I was thanking God for some of the great answers to prayer that he has given me over my life. It led me back to look over all the years that I have lived. And I have had a good life filled with good people, opportunities, adventures, answers to prayer. And I am deeply thankful for all of that.

3:00 And of course, over the seven plus decades of my life, there have also been disappointments, difficulties, challenges, even deep hurts and great losses that have come as well. It has taken time, but I have learned to say thank you for those things as well. So here are a few highlights of each of the decades of my life, which I celebrate and give thanks for. My childhood, I had a happy childhood. My parents, my three sisters, and oh, many dogs, cats, birds, and even horses.

3:46 My sisters and I did fight some, especially one other one with me. But we also enjoyed a lot of time playing outdoors together and with all the neighborhood children. Sometimes I wrote little plays and convinced the neighbor kids to present them to the parents and others in the neighborhood. It was a fun adventure. And I felt growing up safe, secure, and loved. And then there were my teen years. This of course was a more challenging decade. I am grateful for a good education.

4:27 For years with my horses, for beginning exposure to the worlds and the needs around me. College summers included teaching young girls how to ride horses, which I absolutely loved. And without a doubt, the highlight of my teen years and my whole life was meeting Jesus. My friend Patty took me to a Colorado Young Life camp one winter, and there I learned to ski, sort of. I met some cute boys and I met my savior.

5:09 I learned that Jesus would forgive my sins and show me his better way for my life. An amazing promise to one who always wanted her own way. The great adventure of walking with God began of learning to say, I choose your way, Lord. In my 20s, I graduated from the University of Texas with a journalism degree and a heart to serve God. I love beginning to discover who God had made me to be and what he expected, created me to do.

5:50 Writing, editing, and leading filled these years on mission with God with Campus Crusade for Christ. I was a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ crew, and I had the privilege of touching lives for eternity, and that really motivated me. But God kept working on my pride and thinking I was always right. I grew in intimacy with God and recognizing the many hard realities of the world out there, the one we live in, and in awe that God invited me to be on his kingdom building team.

6:31 Ever so slowly, gratitude began to grow. The 30s. This decade was marked by incredible gifts, my marriage to Steve Douglass, and our two daughters, Debbie and Michelle. Steve has always been so encouraging to me, believing I could do so much more than I thought I could. Babies, though, were much more challenging to me than years of magazine editing had been. Yeah, my first baby cried for months and didn't sleep, and I thought I am a total failure.

7:13 And I told God we'd made a mistake, and he said, no, no, this daughter, this baby is just what you need right now. So I made some new discoveries of who God was forming me to be and learned to appreciate the beautiful girls that he had entrusted to me and my husband and the amazing instructive gifts that they were. I've written many blog posts about what I've learned from my children, and I could spend the rest of this session on that, but probably not a good idea. I have some other things I wanna say, but you see, God uses everyone he puts in our lives to do the work in us that we need to have done.

8:04 That includes our prodigals. I was also very privileged to have two books published during my 30s. The first one was Single and Complete, and the second one was He Loves Me. Could I really believe that God had a wonderful plan for my life? In the 40s, I found that I was really busy. The primary focus was parenting, and it added so much to my life. Giving and receiving abundant love, recognizing wonderful strengths and great weaknesses in my life.

8:46 Parenting with my husband in new and meaningful ways. And the joy of watching our girls grow into beautiful human beings. I began to speak a lot, and I published another book called What Can a Mother Do? Finding Significance in Home and Beyond. And then there was the arrival of a special gift from God. In my 50s, I learned to thank God in everything in a deep and life-changing way. That special gift from God was our son, Josh, who came to us at almost 10 from a very difficult early childhood.

9:32 Many issues plagued him from those early years and brought formidable, hard, challenging concerns to him and our family for many years. And I've talked about those very challenging years for more than two years on this podcast. So if you've been listening, you know a lot about that. As I struggled to help our son make some better choices for his life, actually even to choose life when he was not going to, God repeatedly reminded me to give thanks in all things. Josh became my gratitude tutor, and I'm so grateful because I learned so much from those hard years that we went through.

10:25 In my 60s, two significant opportunities filled those years for me. The first was wonderful, partnering with my husband to lead Campus Crusade for Christ crew. I traveled the world. I lived an ambassador role. I was writing and speaking and listening and talking and loving and encouraging our global staff to inspire them to seek to become all that God created them to be. My own inadequacy and unworthiness for such an amazing opportunity kept me on my knees in humble dependence and overwhelming gratitude.

11:14 Why in the world would God give me such an unbelievable opportunity? The second life-changing reality of this decade was my grandchildren. How many times did I hear people say, wait till you have grandkids? Indeed, and amen, such joy and fun they have given. What an opportunity to invest in the next generation. It's become a real calling for me to look at ways to be able to love and encourage and give hugs to people. To love and encourage and give hugs to all those 10 grandchildren that I have.

12:00 One of them has a birthday today. And then I learned gratitude. Oh yes, gratitude for each one of them, but also looking for ways to help them learn gratitude because pretty near everybody has to be on a journey to learn to give thanks in everything. I published another book in that decade called Letters to My Children, Secrets of Success. And then there are the 70s, and I am in my 70s into the eighth decade of my life. These years are bringing some weariness, less energy, more aches and pains, but I'm still here.

12:48 I can still read and write and speak and love, encourage, pray for the people in our ministry and my growing extended family. I published two more books, Shaped by God: Words for Life, and When You Love a Prodigal: 90 Days of Grace for the Wilderness. And if you are listening to this podcast and have not had a copy of my book, I would really encourage you to get one because it's gonna bless you in the hard journey that you're in. You know, I just never get over it.

13:29 That God chose me and called me to various roles in my life, that he equipped me for each one of them. He opened doors of opportunity like this podcast. He imparted wisdom, which I always needed, also courage, because I needed that as well. When you're setting out on something new, you need some courage for that. And he was so kind to anoint my words since words are the main thing that I use in my ministry. God astounds me every day with his love and his grace.

14:10 And apparently, he isn't through with me yet. Though sadly, I continue on God's good plans for my life without my wonderful partner, Steve, who left for heaven five months ago. It's the greatest loss I have experienced. And yet, even in that great loss and in missing my wonderful partner, so very much, God has enabled me to keep saying, thank you, Lord, even through tears, but with true gratitude.

14:52 I'm just amazed at how God fulfills his promises. And when I asked him how I could live without my husband, he said, I'll be with you. And he has been. And I can say thank you for that. So until he calls me home, which could be tomorrow or next year or 10 years from now, and my family people live a long time usually, I will keep going, depending on him, trusting him, besieging him for everything that I need, and thanking my loving and gracious God.

15:38 So what about you? What time in your life are you especially grateful for? And right now, even in your prodigal wilderness, do you find you can say thank you, Lord? Or what might you want to say thank you, Lord, for? Because that's what he's called us to, a life of gratitude. It's transforming, I promise. Next week will be the 100th episode. And we're gonna talk about another incredibly important understanding and way to live.

16:21 And that is that we learn to live and love like Jesus. You don't want to miss it. Invite a friend to join you. God bless you.