Thursday, October 25, 2012

Thoroughly Thankful Thursday Link-Up, Week 4: The Reset Button

Hi everybody! I really can't believe it's Thursday already. I hope you all are having a great week!

The last week or so have been somewhat chaotic around here - I think it kind of comes with the territory; 4-month-old twins and all that. In the midst of this chaos, I've definitely slacked when it comes to being thankful for anything. Some days, it just doesn't feel like there's much to be thankful for. Take Tuesday, for example. We woke up to a freezing cold house. After some investigation, we realized the heater was off and would not turn on for any amount of persuasion. Eighty dollars later, we became acquainted with the reset button. Voilá. Heat. Simple as that. I had imagined I'd feel thankful, but I was just annoyed at the increase in the chaos factor - needing to wrap the babies in blankets for their naps, having to try and find the checkbook to pay the repairman, the fact that he showed up during the one hour I was gone. I could barely muster an ounce of gratitude for the heat.

The truth is, though, that every factor that makes life just a little more chaotic is a blessing. Being married is more complicated than being single; having children is still more hectic. Add jobs, activities, and relationships with others, and you might start to feel like you're stuck in a racquetball court, playing 1-on-20 after you've just dropped your racquet. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't think it's that far off. Yet all of these things are blessings. They fill our lives with love, and we should be thankful for them - thankful to be so busy.

Being busy feels great, up to a point. It makes us feel important and necessary. But when you get to the point where you just can't handle anything else, it's overwhelming. You just want things to be simple, and you don't really feel blessed to be so busy.

I hit this point last night. I got up to the checkout line, after a frantic trip through WinCo, trying to decide what we would eat for the next week while spending as little as possible and still getting in and out in half an hour. As an aside, this is quite possibly the most stressful way to go grocery shopping, and I absolutely do not recommend it. But back to the story. As I waited for the total to slide my debit card and begin bagging my groceries, it hit me that I was incredibly blessed to be able to pay for our food. Just that. We can afford to feed our family. Sure, money's tight, but we can buy groceries.

Like dominoes, everything else began falling into place. Blessed to have jobs, blessed to have recreation (the volleyball game Dan had last night - my reason for rushing), blessed to have children to snuggle (the reason the groceries still aren't all put away), blessed to have a house, blessed to have things to clutter up that house. Lined up neatly like that, my life felt rich and full instead of hectic and overwhelming. Sometimes all it takes is pushing the reset button. I'm thankful God remembered to include one.

Now it's your turn. What are you thankful for this week? Link up your post or share in the comments!

8 comments:

  1. oh I'm thankful you got your furnace back to working! I would be annoyed at having to shell out the $$ to find out that there's a reset button though :) Glad you're still able to see the blessings in your life!

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    1. Thank you! I suppose it may pay for itself over time, if we use it enough this year. Haha.
      It sounds like you had a rough night! I hope you get some more sleep and feel better soon. Have fun on your retreat!

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  2. I cannot believe they are 4 months old. So crazy! I'm glad you got your furnace working!

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    1. I can't believe it either! It doesn't seem possible. Thank you! I'm glad we got it working too. You guys look so cute at the football game!

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  3. I'm dealing with a lot recently and Sarah, your attitude is really great. And your TTT linkups are helping me grow and see more of the blessings in my life even though the hurdles seem SO BIG in comparison. I'm grateful that I had food in the house last night, and I have food today... it really is the little things (that are huge). :)

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    1. Thank you so much! That is really sweet. I have found that capturing the moments of positive thinking in writing has helped a lot. Little things really ARE huge!

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  4. Thank you so much for this link up! I can't believe there is a reset button. I'm going to remember this! :)

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    1. I was pretty excited too! Thanks for linking up!

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