Last week J.J. and I enjoyed a weekend away with our family. When we went to Austin, TX in the springtime we broke up the drive by swinging through Omaha where we took the kids to the Zoo so they could stretch their legs. We realized that with a family our size it’s cheaper to get a family membership to the zoo if we at least go twice, so we got a membership ad also swung by the zoo on the way home from Texas. Then since we had a long weekend available we decided it would be a good time to head back to Omaha to visit the zoo again. While in town we also visited the church in Omaha, it was nice to spend a bit of time with that group while we were there.

In my life, I find that God speaks to me at unexpected times and in unexpected places. One of my favorite spots in the Bible is where God spoke to Elijah, not in the strong wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in a low whisper. My experience has been that God speaks to me in ways that I don’t expect- maybe because that commands my attention better. If I’m going through a earthquake in my life, I might desire for God to scream louder than the earthquake- but what I probably need is the quiet of a whisper to force me to sit and tune my ear to his voice, to block out the noise and be forced to listen. I heard the voice of God at the Henry Doorly Zoo on Saturday, and it wasn’t something I desired or was expecting.

One of the more frustrating things in my parenting journey has been the reality that the more effort I put into doing something enjoyable for my kids, the less they seem to appreciate it. For example, if I were to take my kids on a weekend trip to an epic zoo you can expect that they will complain the entire time. Our trip had all the makings of a whirlwind of fun for our kids- a fun Airbnb, donuts for breakfast, kid friendly restaurants, movies, video games, the zoo… and yet they still had so much to whine about. It was soo hot, we just ate but I’m still hungry, my legs really hurt, I don’t like that animal, I don’t want to look at this one, I wish I had this, I wish I could do that, my brother hit me, my sister looked at me… it’s infuriating. Toward the end of our zoo day as I was pleading on bended knee with one of the kids I implored, “Please, we are at the zoo that you love! We’ve had fun all day! We came here just for you guys because we love you so much! Please stop whining, please stop crying, please stop complaining! Look around, we’re at the ZOO! Enjoy it!” And that was the moment that I heard God say to me, “I feel like saying that same thing to you all the time.” Oof, can’t argue with that one.

You know, we see things like what’s happening in Afghanistan and because we truly have no way to comprehend what these people are really going through, it is so easy to just say, “wow, that’s terrible” and then just continue about our day giving little thought to the situation. We’ll see pictures of the chaos, or hear about it on the news and for a moment it’s back in our consciousness but it probably doesn’t live in our thoughts for long unless we’ve seen it first hand. And really, there’s nothing much we can do about the situation anyways so… But good heavens, we should be falling over daily in gratitude that we haven’t experienced anything like that ourselves. By comparison, the things we deal with are infinitely less important. I get caught up in a lot of little things. The last few months I’ve felt trapped by things that are causing me frustration. I’m irritated about our water situation, I wish our house was more put together, I want this season of parenting to be easier, I’m tired, I get lonely, I don’t have time for the things I want to do, and a million other little things eating at my joy. Since the zoo, I’ve been painfully aware of my ingratitude. I can feel the tug of God saying to me just like I said to my child, “Please! You live in America! My son died for you because I love you so much! You’ve got the good news! Please stop whining, please stop crying, please stop complaining! Look around, you’ve got it made! Enjoy it!” Since I’ve been considering this the last week, it’s been kind of overwhelming to me. I am overwhelmed by the goodness of God. I have so much to be thankful for. So much. And man, do I have work to do on myself. I’m working on having my actions and my mood and my words reflect the gratitude I feel, that’s the mountain I’m climbing today.