I'm thankful for...

THONGS!

Oh did I get your attention with that one? Before you get your mind in the gutter, let me explain this.

Last Wednesday, in youth group, we were talking about what we're thankful for. We played a game as a warm up to the lesson, which was very entertaining. We started off throwing a ball around saying what we're seriously thankful for. But it got tougher because we couldn't repeat anything. It was especially hard for those who had just walked in late not knowing what we had already said and they couldn't repeat anything. We started making up more sillier and random things and our pastor at one point put a time restriction of 3 seconds to have the ball. If you repeated something, didn't have anything to say, or threw the ball at someone who was already out, you were out.

At one point, one of our adults got the ball and blurt out thongs. We laughed for a good 5 minutes about it. She tried to explain herself, but it only made us laugh harder. With her being in a different generation, I don't blame her for what she said. She meant to say flip flops. I think we knew what she meant, but we're teenagers and we don't exactly think that way sometimes.

On Sunday, our pastor talked about attitude. Most of the time, when someone's talking about attitudes, isn't it usually about bad attitude? When you're asked about attitude, is it because you have a bad attitude? Today is Thanksgiving. God deserves all our Thanksgiving. So give it to him. And not with a bad attitude. He doesn't need your sass today. Psalm 100:4-5 says this:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Although this isn't exactly the sermon scripture (that was Philippians 4:1-13 if you were wondering), I thought it was a good verse. We should be praising God for all that he has done for us. Without Him, we would literally be nothing. If God hadn't done what He has done, we probably wouldn't be here.

The main thing I got out of the sermon is that we should be thankful for things even when we don't like it. For instance, it was snowing on Monday during my campus visit to Spring Arbor University. Instead of getting mad about the snow, I was thankful that I got the chance to go.

When things are bad, don't blame God, thank Him for the good things and pray that the bad stuff will leave. Thank God even when you don't want to. After all, He deserves all the thanks. He loves us so much that He sent Jesus, His one and only son, to die on the cross for our sins. I don't think God is a guilt-tripper, but don't you think He deserves to be thanked for all that He has done in our lives? I'm certainly thankful.