iving thanks tends to be our focus one month out of the year. The other eleven months we seem to do our best to just get through, don’t we?

I want to fulfill my purpose with joy and gratitude. I don’t want to go through the motions and end up doing the right thing with the wrong attitude.

These are nice words and even seem somewhat doable until trials and difficulties come up. We think to ourselves, “Life is already hard enough and now this?!”

Of course, we’re not grateful for the trial itself…How can I be grateful for something that is painful? But we’ve been trained in so many ways to think that we can only enjoy and be grateful for what feels good. That’s definitely the message of the world isn’t it?

This scripture is convecting:

Oh man…this means I can’t just be grateful for what I like about life. I need to also be grateful for what is producing the kind of fruit in me that God desires.

This past November, I was reading the story of Thanksgiving with the kids. We read about the Pilgrims and how challenging their journey was. When they got to America, they were met with more hardships. So this is how our conversation went,

Look what came from the Pilgrims’ perseverance. There they were, having just been through probably the hardest season of their lives, and because of their willingness to be friendly to people who didn’t look like them at all with a culture they didn’t understand, they survived. When harvest time finally came, they didn’t curse God for all the challenges. They thanked Him for the provision.

Instead of looking to see what problems there are and saying things like, “I’ll be glad when this is over,” I’m going to look for the areas where I can prove what I believe and who I trust above all others. It feels like this is really where the rubber meets the road. It’s the place where we learn what it truly means to depend on the Lord and embrace the grace that is available for our now. Not happiness somewhere in the future when things get better.

Surrender

I need to stop looking at other people’s lives thinking they have it easier—which oftentimes isn’t even true. I must base my belief in God’s love for me on one thing and one thing only. The cross. He displayed just how far He was willing to go for me in the most epic surrender of His life. So I follow my Teacher and surrender what maybe I thought life should or would look like.

Become Grateful for Stretching

This one is hard. We often ask Him to make us more like Him and give us opportunities to share who He is….Hello! It’s right in front of me. Those moments of feeling stretched to the limit of my patience on an average homeschool day are the opportunities to grow and become more like Him. And it’s not pretty. I mean sure, sometimes it is, but most of the time it feels more like snot and ugly crying had a baby.

Look for the Good

Joy feels far from me when the children need another snack and begin to fight over every little thing including who gets to be which character from a movie. But if I can set down what irritates my flesh and pick up the right lens, I’d see what’s all around me.

shley Wiggers grew up in the early days of the homeschooling movement. She was taught by her late mother, Debbie Strayer, who was an educator, speaker, and the author of numerous homeschooling materials. It was through Debbie’s encouragement and love that Ashley learned the value of being homeschooled. Currently, Ashley and her husband Alex are the publishers of Homeschooling Today magazine. Ashley is the Co-Executive Editor and a contributing columnist as well as one of the hosts of their podcast, Homeschool Boldly. Husband and wife team, Alex and Ashley are busy raising and homeschooling their three children while running the family business together.