Thankful in All Things

Last night in our family devotional we talked about prayer.  Well, we started another series on prayer.  In the past we've discussed The Lord's Prayer, How to Pray, What to pray for, and now we're talking about how God answers prayer.  Last night we discussed asking according to His will, and walking with Him before he answers.  In this, I found 1 Thes 5:12-28.

12Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

 16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

 19Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22Avoid every kind of evil.

 23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

 25Brothers, pray for us. 26Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

 28The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

I really liked vs. 16-18.  But I read the whole thing.

We just barely touched being thankful in all things.  It's hard when money is tight, grades are low, work is frustrating, school is boring, kids are misbehaving, etc.  But God says to be thankful.  Josh and i are thankful that we have jobs - in this economy, it's a HUGE thing.  The kids are thankful they have parents (and step-parents) who love them and support them and help them with school.

Fast forward to this morning.

I went to turn the light off in the hallway and realized the switch was already in the off position.  It's not a mult-switch light.  So if it's off, it's supposed to be off.  I flipped it a few times and it still didn't turn off.  Josh grabbed a screwdriver and took the plate off.  Then started to take the switch out.  The light turned off.  Then put the screws back in, the light turned on.  Hmmm .... is the screw pinching a wire?  Is there a short?  There's smoke coming from the box.  Uh oh.  Not good.  Find the breaker and turn it off.  (Now half the house is without light.)  Pull it all out and we see bare wires, melted insulation, and just bad stuff.

We took photos and called the landlord.  Josh is home today to wait for an electrician (who is supposed to arrive around noon).  

Josh said to me as I left for work, "Be thankful in all things."  

Yes.  We are thankful that we discovered this before the house burnt down.  We are thankful that we have a landlord who is MORE than accommodating and understanding and will reimburse us for the electrician.  We are thankful that we have the means to cover this before our landlord reimburses us.  We are thankful that we are all safe and the house is in one piece.

I wonder how many of our wires are like this?  Do we dare take them apart and inspect them all?????  I don't know.