Even when I fall, I am thankful by 도토리

I wondered when was the time that I gave thanks the most.

I’d say that it was the time when I left to Russia to study Russian.
I arrived in Irkutsk around July or August, but in a matter of months, the surrounding pathways of my residence were covered with snow.For five to six months, it stayed like that.

I had never seen that much snow fall. When I would wake up, the paths would be frozen from the snow that fell the night before.

There was a mountain nearby; I would walk passed it to go to school while wearing my warm shoes with fur inside. However, no matter how carefully I walked, I fell at least once or more.
My other friends didn't even fall when they walked carelessly, but even when I tried to walk carefully, I always fell.

I thought, “It must be how I walk or the weak muscles in my legs that must be the problem…..” In the beginning, I was always conscious and annoyed of how I walked. But later on, because I fell so many times, I just said, “Ah, I fell even today,” shook off the dirt and got up.

At that time, the words that I consciously mumbled after falling down was “thank you.” Although no one told me to be thankful, I just felt like I had to be.
It was because I simply fell; nothing really happened. I could have gotten more hurt or got into a bigger accident.

And I said thank you because I thought that if I was thankful, I would also be protected all the more in the future.

So for a couple of months, I went about shouting, “Thank you!” Thinking about it now, falling a lot of times actually became the starting point for me to seek the Lord even more. By doing that, I came to fall less. Although I still had to walk more carefully than others, from that time on, I didn’t fall, so I said, “Thank you,” once again.

When I read the Word saying, “Thanksgiving brings about more thanksgiving,” I was reminded of those days. Although I gave thanks in the beginning consciously because I was worried, later on, I really adopted a true heart of thanksgiving.
I came to seek the Lord more while giving thanks, and from that, things to be thankful about have kept on coming up.

I think the heart of giving thanks is another one of the blessings given by the Lord.