6 January 2021

I had plans. Actually I had plans upon my plans. I had a few days off, so I had made a list of things I wanted to do. Things I wanted to achieve or start even and things that would relax me as we all headed into a New Year.

They did not eventuate.

The day after Christmas Day I felt exhausted! I thought surely I had not overdone it that much in preparation for the day and on the day. Yes, when it is at your house you don’t sit down much the whole day. I had been up at 6am to prepare the turkey and stuff it with a savoury bread stuffing that Bruce liked, and then put it in the oven ready for lunch at 12.30pm.

We had the family coming over at different times during the whole day because of the logistics of all the families from both sides.

So the next day, Boxing Day, I stayed in bed till lunchtime. OH IT WAS NICE!.

But as the day progressed, I felt worse, and decided to have an early night, even though I felt like I had only just got up.

The next few days were a blur. I had brain fog or another way to describe it is my head was stuffed with cotton wool. I had caught a cold with  a chesty cough .

The blessing was it was NOT Covid-19. It made me feel miserable, lethargic, brain numb and blah. You get the picture.

As I started to slowly recover and put into place all that the doctor had set me up with for recovery, I started to feel grateful. My simple prayers of thankfulness came to my lips. Even just some rote prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary helped me to express my gratefulness to the Lord for I so often started well and then deteriorated into forgetting the next line, repeating what I had just said.

Why am I sharing this? For God had made me aware how grateful I was to Him that I had just a simple summer cold, (albeit it had gone straight to my chest and I quickly developed bronchiolitis which kept me up a lot at night coughing), but it was NOT Covid.

The next few days as I improved everything I read showed me the word and the sentiment of gratefulness.

On one of my daughters Instagram pages there was a post that read:

“2020 was not the year to receive everything you wanted. This was the year to APPRECIATE everything you have.”

Then I read an article about an off the cuff interview at a local Cricket Match of an Australian Cricketer, Usman Khawaja, whose career had been on hold the last few years due to bad form.

 Yes, ladies I grew up with Cricket, AFL, Rugby, Tennis, Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and I Love watching most sports. (I even learnt some of the rules of the American Football and enjoy that too!)

This man who I did not know much about till I read his interview, was a man who had and still does appreciate the little things in life. They mentioned that he was the forgotten Aussie Batsman in the International Wilderness. This is part of the article:

“Regardless of how – or where – he’s batting, the 34-year-old remains positive.

“The three things I really live by is number one, trust in God’s plan,” he said.

“As someone who believes in God there is a plan that has got to happen.

Two, I try to stay really patient. Whether that’s runs, wins, anything in life – I try to stay patient.

And probably the most important thing for me is gratitude. Making sure when things are going well and even when they aren’t going well, I’m really grateful for all the blessings I have.

We live in a beautiful Country in Australia. I have a beautiful wife, beautiful family and a beautiful child. There are a lot of things in life that I can be grateful for, even food on the table.”

News.com.au

Was I grateful? For what I have, who I am, where I am?

Do I have a grateful Heart?

Corrie Ten Boom, a survivor from the German Auschwitz Holocaust Camps had that type of HEART! Forever Grateful to her GOD.

In her autobiography, The Hiding Place, she shared about what her sister Betsie (who died at Auschwitz) had taught her about being grateful. 

We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw.

..Suddenly I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg.

“‘Fleas!’ I cried. ‘Betsie, the place is swarming with them!’

“‘Here! And here another one!’ I wailed. ‘Betsie, how can we live in such a place!’

“‘Show us. Show us how.’ It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying. More and more the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsie.

“‘Corrie!’ she said excitedly. ‘He’s given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!’

“I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch. ‘It was in First Thessalonians,’ I said. We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Scheveningen.

“In the feeble light I turned the pages. ‘Here it is: “Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all…’” It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck.

“‘Go on,’ said Betsie. ‘That wasn’t all.’

“‘Oh yes:’…”Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.’”

“‘That’s it, Corrie! That’s His answer. “Give thanks in all circumstances!” That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!’ I stared at her; then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.

“‘Such as?’ I said.

“‘Such as being assigned here together.’

“I bit my lip. ‘Oh yes, Lord Jesus!’

“‘Such as what you’re holding in your hands.’ I looked down at the Bible.

“‘Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all these women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.’

“‘Yes,’ said Betsie, ‘Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear!’

She looked at me expectantly. ‘Corrie!’ she prodded.

“‘Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed suffocating crowds.’

“‘Thank You,’ Betsie went on serenely, ‘for the fleas and for–‘

“The fleas! This was too much. ‘Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.’

“‘Give thanks in all circumstances,’ she quoted. It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.

“And so we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.”

“Back at the barracks we formed yet another line–would there never be an end to columns and waits?–to receive our ladle of turnip soup in the center room. Then, as quickly as we could for the press of people, Betsie and I made our way to the rear of the dormitory room where we held our worship “service.” Around our own platform area there was not enough light to read the Bible, but back here a small light bulb cast a wan yellow circle on the wall, and here an ever larger group of women gathered.
“They were services like no others, these times in Barracks 28.

“At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder. So many now wanted to join us that we held a second service after evening roll call.

There on the Lagerstrasse we were under rigid surveillance, guards in their warm wool capes marching constantly up and down. It was the same in the center room of the barracks: half a dozen guards or camp police always present. Yet in the large dormitory room there was almost no supervision at all. We did not understand it.

“One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls. A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room. Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together. Her eyes were twinkling.

“‘You’re looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,’ I told her.

“‘You know, we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,’ she said. ‘Well–I’ve found out.’

“That afternoon, she said, there’d been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it.

“But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?”

“Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: ‘Because of the fleas! That’s what she said, “That place is crawling with fleas!’”

“My mind rushed back to our first hour in this place. I remembered Betsie’s bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.”

The Hiding Place

Even though I was still not feeling well, my plans had not eventuated, I am grateful for where God has me. I am grateful for the future He has for me.

Are you grateful? Especially going into a whole new year?

Remember to praise God for the fleas in your life.

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups. If you would like more information please click HERE.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Are you grateful? Especially going into a whole new year?

Are you grateful for what you have, for who you are, for where you are?

Do you have a grateful heart? If not, what do you need to do to be grateful?