Thanking God for Ants...

Phil thanked God for ants tonight... 

I definitely didn't see that one coming.  

I wasn't feeling very thankful for them myself.  They entered our house by the thousands when it rained the other day, and then decided to make themselves at home.  Before I am able to shower each morning I have to wash hundreds of them down the drain!  They are constantly on our kitchen table and on our bed.  Whenever you sit on the couch you find at least 3 or 4 crawling on you.  Not my idea of a praise report.

The shock effect of Phil's prayer got me thinking though.  It's very easy for me to pick out the nice things in life and thank the Lord for those.  And if I think positively enough then it makes all the other, not-so-nice, things more bearable.

But maybe that's not the right attitude.  

Perhaps the Lord is trying to teach me to be truly thankful for those things that are hard, uncomfortable, and inconvenient.  This concept doesn't make sense from a human perspective, but Paul understood it,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  ...That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

 When I go through difficult situations, it reminds me of my own human frailty and causes me to rely on the Lord more fully.  In light of this new perspective...

here is my list of praise reports from the field:

I'm thankful for... 

• Toilets that have to be flushed with a bucket of water
• Cold showers
• Diarrhea 
• The latch that falls off our door every time we open it
• Language barriers
• The curtains in our home (they're really ugly)

All of these things, although uncomfortable or inconvenient, remind me where my strength is from and in whom to place my hope.  

And, most of all, 

I'm thankful for a husband who thanks Jesus for the ants.