Take it and be thankful

This week's theme has been "Take it and be thankful" for me.

On Monday night, we decided to cancel dance class, so I had an evening free with Nate, which is always wonderful. However, it was leading up to a Tuesday and Wednesday off work as well. I was taking off these mid-week days in exchange for working weekends, but I still felt bad about jetting off in the middle of a work week and leaving other staff and volunteers to cover for me while I had fun. I even felt bad about not being at dance on Monday night.

So I decided to "take it and be thankful." It was a treat to have a non-weekend off with my husband, and we sincerely enjoyed it. From getting brunch to running errands to a day off skiing, it was one of the best "weekends" we've had in a very long time.

Next up, a friend told me some very sad things about life, and it made me hurt to hear that I had what someone else wanted so dearly. I had to realize that was nothing I should feel guilty about but that I should take what I consider a very wonderful life and just be thankful that God has blessed me and Nate so.

Finally, I didn't end up having to work this weekend, and I yet again felt guilty that when I was supposed to work I didn't end up having to. I even thought about going to put in hours just the same so I didn't feel bad about it. However, instead I decided to take yet another unexpected blessing this week and be thankful.

I think we often want to repay someone or make sure the scales are even between ourselves and someone else. It's hard to see unfair discrepancies in life sometimes, and it can make us feel very guilty.

But we never know the whole story. Perhaps someone else's life is really quite good, but they have a pessimistic attitude. Perhaps God is trying to teach us all a lesson, but it's a different lesson in each of our lives. We really shouldn't judge the reason that we feel blessed.

When you give someone a gift, you don't want them to feel in debt or to question why they received this gift. You just want them to enjoy it. When God wants to give us a gift, or when someone wants to give us a gift, we should just take it. Take it and be thankful.