My husband's family has had a tradition for many, many years. I'm so glad I married into their family and have been allowed to participate in this tradition, for it has become one of my favorite events each year. I always look forward to it. There's yummy food, fellowship with family, and most of all designated time for preparing my heart and mind for Easter.
We celebrate a Messianic Jewish Passover each year. It's a truly beautiful event. Too often as Christians, I feel that we kind of "write off" The Old Testament and focus entirely on The New Testament. But as Paul says in Romans, knowledge of the Law shows us just how beautiful grace is and how badly we need our Savior. God has written a miraculous love story over time. As we recline over a Passover Supper each year and follow along in the Messianic Passover Haggadah, it's a really incredible reminder of how all the pieces fit together and how God truly reached down to us out of love.
There's one part that is my very favorite. The lead reader begins reading all of the gifts God has lavished upon His people. After each one, all of us at the table reply, "Dayenu!" after each statement. Dayenu means "it would have been sufficient." In other words, God has more than given us good things. It would have been sufficient for Him to give us one or even a few of His miracles or acts of deliverance and providence. Instead, he lavishes us with even more than we deserve or could have ever asked for. It instills a tremendous sense of thankfulness in me each year. I left my in-laws' home this past Saturday night with a full heart.
Funny that the very next day, I was sitting on the couch talking with yelling at my husband. These exact words slipped out of my mouth: "I just got screwed. I did everything right, and I got screwed. My life is horrible." Of course with that statement, I was trying to blame my husband and make him feel as little as humanly possible. I definitely succeeded. It was not a fun couple of hours that followed.
What happened to the spirit of thankfulness?
I think back to when I used to write on my Frugal Fun and Fortune blog about simplicity, contentment, and gratefulness. I remember being so joyful despite our circumstances. Lately I haven't been feeling very content . In fact, I've been filled to the brim with anger and bitterness.
It's so easy to look around me and see what I don't have in my life. It's easy to get depressed, let the joy get sucked out of me, and be filled with negative thoughts and feelings.
But I really do have so much to be thankful for, and I'm striving to get back to that place of contentment that I once found so easy. Instead of dwelling on what I don't have, I'm determined to set my mind on what I DO have, for I have been immensely blessed.
Over the next few weeks, I plan on trying to blog about the gifts in my life that I am thankful for. I'm hoping that this, coupled with prayer and scripture reading, will help me settle back into contentment and joy with my life.
For if my life were shades darker than this and I didn't even have the many blessings that I so commonly overlook...but God had sent His Son Jesus to die for me, save me, and grant me the eternal gifts of grace and love...
Dayenu!
