Know-Love-Obey God

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Or, more accurately, redundant gratitude prevents an attitude of entitlement—one of my many lessons from counting God’s gifts.

I opened the birthday card from my husband and sons. Inside: several singles and twenty-dollar bills, with their written restriction that I must spend it to visit a friend. Knowing that I highly value both friendship and solitude, they gave me solo travel time!

#950 on my Gratitude List:
Gift from husband and sons: money specifically for solo travel.

#951:
Looking forward to good, long solitude time (including the five-hour layover!).

I also received birthday money from two other relatives. All together, it totaled the cost of a ticket to Tucson, where a friend was about to celebrate her 40th birthday. It was a no-brainer. I bought the ticket.

One week later, on the day of my departure:
Carry-on packed. Granola and four loaves of bread made. One dinner in the freezer. The ingredients for two more in the pantry and fridge. Two school days planned and written for boys to follow in my absence. All necessary papers laid out, in order. Library books returned.

Everything was under control. My stress level: blissfully low.

I happily settled myself into the passenger seat. My family was about to drive me to the airport for my birthday trip. Charles turned the ignition key, and the engine made a racket like rocks fighting metal.

He immediately turned it off. “There’s no way we’re taking this car anywhere,” he said (and we are a one-car family).

#952:
The car broke down right there in our garage. (Could’ve been at a busy intersection, or worse.)

With my brain at full throttle, I hurried to the telephone. Who lives nearby and might be home on a Wednesday afternoon? Julie—not home. Kathy—not home, but she started praying.

#953:
Kathy, who wasn’t home to take me to the airport but who prayed that I would find a ride soon.

Aida—not home. Janell—Janell! She made sure her kids would be cared for when they arrived from school, then said yes. On the way to the airport she said she would normally be at an appointment, but that person had cancelled.

#954:
Kathy’s prayer, granted.

#955:
Janell, who made her life inconvenient to take me to the airport.

I arrived in Tucson to temperatures in the mid-70s and the company of a good friend and her children. I called Charles late that night to hear details of our car engine’s demise and the announcement, “I sold it to the junkyard.”

I was not upset. I enjoyed my vacation instead of dwelling on the car trouble at home. I had good fellowship, cooked, read East of Eden, rode off into the sunset on a mustang, napped, viewed Saguaro and prickly pear cactus, relaxed, and peacefully rested.

Many days later I wondered at it. Why did losing our only car fail to ruin my trip? Then, I remembered. Before the car died, I had repeatedly thanked God for the car.

I searched for “car” in my Endless Gifts list and found:

158. Gas in the car.
339. No car damage from the hail.
644. Car that works.
741. A working car.
784. The car works.
808. A working car.
892. Car that gets >30 mpg (city).

When I say to God, “Thank You,” I can never say, “Thank You, I deserved that.” Repeatedly thanking God for the same things reinforces the truth that the gifts are indeed gifts—undeserved blessings granted to me. Redundant gratitude protects me from an attitude of entitlement. In thanking God for the car, I recognize that He has granted it to me. Therefore, when I lost the car, I did not think, “Hey, I have Bible study to drive to and groceries to buy. God, you owe me a car! I should have a car!”

It is a good lesson and yet another spiritual benefit of thanksgiving. And so, I will keep counting.