Cultivate Thanksgiving
by Heather McAnear
The last two weekends have included time in the yard, pulling up plants that won’t make it through the winter, pruning back limbs and cultivating the soil for fall planting. As my husband and I chatted about preparing our yard for the next season, I couldn’t help but reflect on the parallel to our hearts.
Mamas, we all know the truth: what we meditate on takes root in our hearts, and what is rooted in our hearts will flow out of our attitudes and actions. It’s easy to see a toddler throwing a fit or teen copping an attitude and immediately make that connection, but what about our own inner dialogues? What anxious, obsessive, angry or bitter thoughts are we rehearsing? How have we allowed what we shrug off as “small” sins to creep in? It isn’t fun or popular to talk about sin, yet we “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23).
Just as we know the recipe for a cranky toddler (and honestly oftentimes an off-kilter teen) is usually a snack and a nap, we know the cure for our misaligned minds and hearts: a feeding from God’s word and rest from things stealing our joy. I’m guessing those are the things you might expect to hear in Christian circles, but there is no truer formula that I’ve found.
The word of God has the ability to replace my selfish thoughts and bad attitude with humility and gratitude. Meditating on His goodness and His word re-plant negative, toxic things with His powerful, eternal wisdom—something of which I need a constant dose. Secondly, when I’m in a “funk,” there is usually something from which I need rest: worry or anxiousness over a situation (which is literally meditating on “bad news” rather than goodness), an overly busy schedule that is leaving me frazzled and frustrated or a twist in a relationship that needs to be addressed. Each of these takes effort, but the result is so worth it.
As we move into the fall season, which can be both wonderful and exhausting, may we take an honest look at the condition of the soil in our own hearts. Let’s prune what doesn’t need to stick around, confess where our soil could use the life-giving word of God and cultivate hearts full of thanksgiving.
Author Bio
Heather McAnear is a wife, mom, author and speaker with a passion for sharing God's truth to help people use it for God's glory. She also hosts the Uniquely Beautiful Stories podcast on iTunes. She loves teaching young married couples with her husband, homeschooling their three children, traveling the world, enjoying good chocolate and long conversations in coffee shops. CRBC has been her church home for two decades.