10 Days Without Praise

*I’ve been trying to write this post for a week, and I just can’t seem to get the words out of my head and onto the screen. There are times in our life when the feelings are just to raw to make them sound pretty or correct, there are times when you just have to get them out. That is my disclaimer for this post.

 
Can you go 10 whole days without praise? I think you can, I think I did. Can you be thankful but not praiseful?


The week of surgery, I was prepared, at peace and even excited about it. The Lord had given me great peace and I truly had no fear. I thought what a great opportunity surgery would be for me to practice my praise. I finished Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts and was well on my way to recording my own personal One Thousand Gifts. I packed my little notebook along with my things for the hospital and was ready, like I was about to embark on a great adventure.

Surgery went well, even with a little complication, and I was so happy to have the worse behind me (or so I thought). I brought out my Gratitude Journal and wrote some of the gifts I had received while in the hospital.
          
          Peanut Butter M&M’s late at night
          Flowers from others
          My Soulmate

Then it stopped. Then I stopped. I couldn’t write the gift He had given me, the ugly beautiful gift. Why was it so hard to write?

         Injured Bladder
         Slow Recovery

Doesn’t our Lord give us the gifts that are needful for us? I struggled for 10 days with this, I so wanted to be thankful for the gift, but I just wasn’t. Instead, I sat in a chair and sulked, pouted at my sweet Father for the gift He had given.
 
        Matthew 7:11
          "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"


When my gift was taken from me, then I was thankful, then I praised him. What a sad tale of my own weakness, my own flesh. Why could I not trust my Heavenly Father with the gift that was a bit painful, but a lot needful?


Today, I am recovering well and learning (I trust) to let go of my own ideas and expectations and praise him for the gifts he gives me, even if the gifts are painful or uncomfortable.
         
         Grumpiness
         One Hour of Normalcy
         Fresh Coffee
         Crumbs in my bed
         Painless Saturday
         Painful Sunday
         Rain Clouds
         Rain


What gifts has your Father given you this week? Are you able to praise Him even if the gifts are painful?
 
      James 1:17
       "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."