The Attitude of Gratitude...series Day 5 and 6

Today we will be doing day 5 and 6 assignments - basically because half of day 5 is advertisement.

Day 5:

Today, try to call or write three people on the list you made yesterday, to express your gratitude for their influence and ministry in your life. ....... (advertising her thank you cards)...

Day 6:

Paul instructed the Ephesians believers to "give thanks always for all things...." (Eph. 5:20).

One man of God told of meditating on this verse while he was brushing his teeth one morning. He was challenged by the thought of thanking God for everything! He said, "I began by thanking God for my toothbrush. Then I thanked Him for the toothpaste. Then I realized I had never thanked God for my teeth!" He went on to ask this probing question: "If tomorrow's supply depended on today's thanksgiving, how much would I have tomorrow?"

As you go through this day, try to consciously thank God for all things....small things and big thing!

The Attitude of Gratitude...series Day 4

Day 4

Make a list of other individuals who have blessed or touched your life in some way. You may want to include pastors, teachers, friends, business associates, neighbors, authors, leaders of Christian ministries, etc. As you write each name, ask yourself, "Have I ever thanked that person for the way God has used him/her in my life?" Put a check mark next to each individual to whom you have expressed gratitude.

 

 

The Attitude of Gratitude....series

Today, focus on expressing gratitude to and for your family members. Make a list of each member of your family (mate, parent, children, brothers, sisters, etc.). Then next to each name , write one quality about their life for which you are particularly grateful.

1.__________________   _______________________________
2.__________________   _______________________________
3.__________________   _______________________________
4.__________________   _______________________________
5.__________________   _______________________________
6.__________________   _______________________________
7.__________________   _______________________________
8.__________________   _______________________________

Take time to thank God for each member of the family He has given you. Then pick three individuals from your list to whom you can express gratitude today, either in person, by phone, or by means of a note. You might want to begin by saying something like this:

"Today I thanked God for you. And I wanted to tell you how grateful I am that you are a part of my family, and especially for this particular quality that I see in your life......."

 

(You may want to express gratitude to someone on your list who has been especially difficult to love!)



The Attitude of Gratitude... series...

Today I am sharing a little poem so that Friday we can start on our assignments. See you then :O)

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Thou that hast given so much to me

Give me one thing more, a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me,

As if Thy blessings had spare days,

But such a heart whose pulse may be

Thy praise.

 

~ George Herbert

The Attitude of Gratitude....series

Today we will resume our series where I share this great little book with you all. I think we all need more gratitude in our lives and I think this book will help us all. Keep coming back on Friday's because coming soon we have some life application assignments to do to help us in this area of gratitude.
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In 1989, news photographer Tony O'Brien, a U.S. citizen, took an assignment from LIFE magazine to cover the fall of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, after the Soviets pulled out. He found himself caught in the midst of a brutal civil war, and was thrown into an Afghan prison by Soviet-backed security forces.

During the traumatic experience, O'Brien shared a cell with a Shiite Muslim, named Nader Ali. The two men struck up a remarkable friendship and, throughout their incarceration, Ali proved to be a vital source of encouragement and hope to O'Brien.

In time, various diplomats and colleagues succeeded in securing O'Brien's release, and he returned to his home in New Mexico.

Three years later, O'Brien found himself once again, on a plane bound for Kabul. He explained his purpose for returning, in an article in the August 1992 issue of LIFE:

The last time I saw Nader Ali, he was behind bars, watching me walk to freedom.

I never thought I would see him again, never thought I would go back to Afghanistan.

But now I am on a plan, returning to the place I spent the most terrifying weeks of my life.

He is a man I need to thank...I have thanked everyone else- those who got me out of prison,

 who called my mother every day. Yet I never thanked the person who gave me the strength to live, Afghanistan is free now, but I am not.

 

 

For days, O'Brien traipsed through a city of 1.5 million people, with few telephones, addresses, or street signs, unsure of whether or not Ali was even still alive, until his search was finally rewarded, and he was able to fulfill the obligation he felt to thank the man who had meant so much to him.

 

As I read O'Brien's moving account, I could not help but think of the infinitely greater debt that you and I owe to the One who came to us when we were in the prison of our sinful, selfish ways, and brought to us hope, deliverance, and life.

O'Brien felt that he could not be free until he had paid his debt of gratitude. In much the same way, I believe that you and I cannot be truly free, though we have been released from bondage, if our hearts and tongues have ceases to give thanks.

Tony O'Brien traveled half way around the world, to say "thank you" to one man who had shown him kindness. Perhaps right now would be a great time to take a trip to Calvary, to kneel before our incredible Savior, to look into His loving face, and to say, "Oh, Lord Jesus, thank You! Thank You! Thank You!"
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Be sure to come back next week :O)

Attitude of Gratitude....series

Today we are doing part 2 of this section.

"Thankful people are refreshing, life-giving springs, while unthankful people pull other down with them into the stagnant pools of their selfish, demanding, miserable ways."

 

I have learned a lot about thankfulness from a young woman I met a number of years ago. Since birth, Fran has been the victim of crippling cerebral palsy. She has suffered through many painful surgeries, as well as the divorce of her unsaved parents, the death of her father, and a relatively isolated existence. A couple years after she met Christ, Fran wrote to share with me what God had been teaching her. She detailed many of the "thorns" that she has to contend with on a daily basis. Then she closes with an original piece of ho9mespun verse entitled, simply:  

 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is something you learn

to do.

It involves a daily walk in trust and

prayer.

When circumstances get so big you can't

understand,

Just stop and look at the cross and you

will see

The amazing love that is shown for you

there.

 

Realize it is a part of God's plan

You don't have to understand.

Just take hold of His hand,

For you see, God is unlimited.

 

Therefore, in every circumstance there is

a purpose.

No matter how dark it looks, just look to

Jesus,

Take hold of His hand and know that He

is working on your behalf.

 

And so, we are called to e thankful people, to recognize and express appreciation for the benefits that we have received from God and others. We are all debtors, and we repay those debts with grateful hearts and words of thanksgivings. It is not enough to feel gratitude in our hearts. That gratitude must be communicated to those to whom we re indebted.



 

 

From time to time, I find it helpful to stop and take stock of my "gratitude accounts." I ask myself, is there any circumstance in my life for which I have never given thanks? Is there some blessing I have received for which I have not expressed gratitude? Is there an individual ) a family member, a friend, and acquaintance, and associate, a teacher, a pastor) who has in some way touched or benefited my life, to whom I have not yet paid my debt by saying, "Thank you"?

 

In fact, as I began to write this piece, God brought to mind the names of a number of people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude--among them, three authors that I have never met, whose writings have greatly impacted my life and walk with God. I have since had the joy of paying that debt, in the form of heartfelt letters of thanks.

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The month of July my son will have his daughter and I will be caring for her while he is at work. It will be a very busy month for me and I will probably won't have as much opportunity to work on blog posts.

In August we will resume this series - with a part three of this section, a couple of poems and we will get some homework. :O)

 



The Attitude of Gratitude..series

Thankful people are refreshing, life-giving springs, while unthankful people pull others down with them into the stagnant pools of their selfish, demanding, miserable ways.

We have all known people who were unpleasant to be around because of their negative, down-in-the-mouth way of looking at life. Perhaps we also know what it is to have our own attitudes affected adversely by such people. Thankfulness is infectious; it poisons and contaminates the atmosphere of our hearts, homes, and other relationships.

But gratefulness is squally contagious. Do you remember the story of Pollyanna, the orphaned child who was sent to live with a cantankerous aunt who didn't want her? Do you remember how the whole climate of that home and community was literally transformed as Pollyanna introduced a joyless, thankless town to "The Glad Game"? At first, people made fun of the strange little girl who insisted on finding something to be glad about every time anything had happened. But ultimately they were compelled by the power of "the attitude of gratitude."

*part one- come back next week for part 2*

The Attitude of Gratitude....series

 

"A grateful heart will be revealed and expressed by thankful words, while an unthankful heart will manifest itself in murmuring and complaining."

 

A grateful spirit is what enables people to view and respond to the most painful circumstances in life with thanksgiving. As one person observed, "Some people complain because God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses among thorns."

 

Again, thankful believers from the past have much to teach us in this matter.

 

Matthew Henry, the well-known commentator of the 19th century, was once accosted by robbers. Reflecting on the experience, he wrote in his diary.

 

Let us be thankful, first, because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed!

 

 

David Brainerd, that devoted missionary to the American Indians, who died before the age of 30, was characterized by a thankful spirit that enabled him to count his blessings in the direst of difficulties. On one occasion, while visiting friends, he suddenly developed a toothache and a shivering cold. During the night, he was attacked by a high fever and great pain throughout his body. Yet he thanked God that this distress had fallen upon him while he was among friends, rather than alone in the wilderness.

 

Another time while ill in his little hut and suffering severe pain, he again found grounds for gratitude. He penned in his diary, "Blessed be the Lord, I am not exposed in the open air. I have a house and many comforts to support me."

 

On yet another occasion, when facing long weeks of solitude, forging through swamps, on rocky terrain, through dark nights, and cut off from all human companionship, he exclaimed, "What reason for thankfulness have I on account of this retirement." He explained that contact with people afforded him the friendship and companionship of the world but loneliness drove him to experience intimate fellowship with the Lord.

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When we face difficult times - let us try to find things to be grateful for. :O)

 

 







The Attitude of Gratitude....series

People with grateful hearts are easily contented,

 while ungrateful people are subject to bitterness and discontent.

 

Years of counseling with people who are chronically unhappy, depressed, frustrated, and emotionally unstable, have convinced me that these "disorders" often stem from an unthankful heart, regardless of any external circumstances that may appear to provide an explanation.

 

An ungrateful person holds tightly to his "rights," and sets himself up for hurt and disappointment when God or others fail to perform according to is expectations. But the individual who has yielded all his rights to God, sees all of life through thankful eyes, and has no room in his heart for selfish, destructive emotions.

 

Great saints of the past sing in unison on this point. A. W. Tozer observed,

 

Thanksgiving is a proper answer to dark disquieting thoughts, and may be an effectual means to silence them. Songs of praise are sovereign cordials to drooping souls, and will help to cure melancholy. When we have no other answer to the suggestions of grief and fear, we may have recourse to this, "I thank Thee, O Father."

 

John Henry Jowett put it this way:

 

"Gratitude is a vaccine, and antitoxin, and an antiseptic." Another preacher expanded the analogy:

 

Gratitude can be a vaccine that can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled attitude. As antitoxins prevent the disastrous effects of certain poison's and diseases, thanksgiving destroys the poison of faultfinding and grumbling. When trouble has smitten us, a spirit of thanksgiving is an soothing antiseptic.

 

Friedrich Ruckert said it succinctly: "Wouldst thou first pause to thank thy God for every pleasure, for mourning over griefs thou wouldst not find the leisure." 



 





The Attitude of Gratitude ....series

The "attitude of gratitude" is something that desperately needs to be cultivated in our hearts, our homes, and our society. Its presence brings in its train a host of other blessings, while its absence has profound, lethal repercussions. Consider with me some of the contrasts between a grateful heart and an ungrateful heart:

A grateful heart is a full heart, while an unthankful heart is an empty one.

No matter how little he may actually have compared to others, a grateful person enjoys a sense of fullness. But no matter how much a person may in fact have, if he is not a thankful person, he will live with a gnawing sense of emptiness. I picture an unthankful heart as being something like a container with a hole in it that causes all its blessings to leak out! The grateful person has unlimited capacity to truly enjoy God's blessings, while the ungrateful person can't enjoy the blessing he does have.

 

The Apostle Paul provides us with a powerful illustration of this principle. The book of Philippians is really a rather lengthy "thank-you" note, written to express gratitude for what the believers in Philippi had done to minister to Paul's material needs while he was traveling and planting churches.  

 



 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving; except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need

(Philippians 4:15-16 NIV).

 

having expressed his heartfelt appreciation for their most recent gift, Paul, writing from the bowels of a Roman prison, and deprived of all but the barest of necessitates, makes a remarkable statement: "I have all, and abound: I am full..."(Phil. 4:18 KJV)! Who but a very grateful person could have assessed his incarcerated conditions with those words?  

 

IF we are honest, I think most of us would have to say that our correspondence in such a situation would certainly have included a litany of the sacrifices we were making, the price we were paying to serve the Lord, the creature comforts we were lacking, and the physical and emotional needs we were facing.

 

But, not Paul! From  heart overflowing with gratitude, he cries out, "I have all, and abound; I am full"! In fact, so abounding does he believe God's goodness to be that he proceeds to reassure his reader that there is more than enough for hem as well; "but my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19 KJV).

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Come back next week! :o)

 

 

 



The Attitude of Gratitude.....series

The "attitude of gratitude" is something that desperately needs to be cultivated in our hearts, our homes, and our society. Its presence brings in its train a host of other blessings, while its absence has profound, lethal repercussions. Consider with me some of the contrasts between a grateful heart and an ungrateful heart:

A grateful heart is conscious of God and others,

while an ungrateful person is self-conscious and self-centered.

 

Grateful people think and talk abut others, but ungrateful people tend to focus on "my needs," "my feelings," "my hurts," "my desires," "how I have been treated, neglected, failed, or wounded." An unthankful person is full of himself; his whole world revolves around himself. He seldom pauses to consider the needs and feelings of others.

 

As a result of this preoccupation with self, ungrateful people are typically grasping, demanding people, while grateful people are free to be giving and caring.

 

Grateful people are loving people who seek to gratify and bless others, while ungrateful people are bent on gratifying themselves.

 

One o the most common end results of ingratitude is the sin of moral impurity. The manor woman who is not thankful for the way God has met his needs, easily begins to falsely accuse and find fault with our good God. In rejecting the provision God has already made, the ungrateful person is only one small step away from seeking to get his needs met in illegitimate ways.

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Be sure and come back next week. This is an excellent series. It has stepped on my toes a bit - as it has opened my eyes to areas in my life that I need to change. Well that I need to allow God to change.

 

 

 

 



Attitude of Gratitude....series

The "attitude of gratitude" is something that desperately needs to be cultivated in our hearts, our homes, and our society. Its presence brings in its train a host of other blessings, while its absence has profound, lethal repercussions. Consider with me some of the contrasts between a grateful heart and an ungrateful heart:

A grateful person is a humble person, while ingratitude reveals a proud heart.

The grateful person feels a great sense of unworthiness-"I have so much more than I deserve." But an ungrateful person feels, "I deserve so much more than I have."

 

I can still remember hearing my father respond when asked how he was doing, "Better than I deserve!" He had a grateful heart. You see, he never forgot the waywardness and rebellion that had characterized the first twenty-five years of his life, prior to his conversion. It never ceased to amaze him that God had saved him, and he always felt an enormous sense of unworthiness and gratitude  for even the least of God's favors.  

 

I have always been impressed by the grateful spirit of Ruth the Moabites. Widowed after less than a decade of marriage, and impoverished stranger in a foreign land, and "condemned" to live with her embittered mother-in-law, Ruth seeks a way to support herself and Naomi. When she is discovered by Boaz, who extends to her the right to glean in his fields, she falls all over herself trying to express gratitude for his gracious gesture:

 

"Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him,

Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me,

 seeing I am a stranger?" Ruth 2:10 KJV

 

I have the feeling that under similar circumstances, I might have been more likely to think, or even say to others, "It's the least he could do!" But the humility of this young widow is seen in her response of gratitude to the least little kindness shown her by another.

 

Henry Ward Beecher said it well:

 

Pride slays thanksgiving, but an humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grows.

 A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thanks he gets as much as he deserves. 

 

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Come back next week for our next installment! :O)







The Attitude of Gratitude....series

This week we begin a new series. This will come from the booklet - "The Attitude of Gratitude.. Developing a Thankful Heart" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss 

I will do my best to have a portion of this book each Friday morning. So please keep coming back to read the next part of this very insightful book. I think we all could do with more gratitude in our lives. What do you think?
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By today's standards, she should have been an unhappy, troubled woman. Her father died when she was quite young, leaving her to be raised by her mother and grandmother. As a result of a doctor's careless error when she was only six weeks old, she was afflicted with lifelong blindness.

The tragic and traumatic experiences of this woman's childhood years would have given most people more than enough grounds for a lifetime of pelf-pity, bitterness, and psychological disorders.

Yet, in her autobiography, Frances Jane Crosby wrote, "It seemed intended by the blessed Providence of God that I should be blink all my life, and I think Him for the dispensation."

The doctor who destroyed her sight never forgave himself and moved from the area, but there was no room in Fanny Crosby's heart for resentment. "If I could meet him now," she wrote, "I would say 'Thank you, thank you'---over and over again--for making me blind."

Te blindness that many would have considered at best an accident, and at worst a curse, was considered by Fanny to be one of her greatest blessings. She accepted her blindness as a gift from God. "I could not have written thousands of hymns.' she said, if I had been hindered by the distractions of seeing all the interesting and beautiful objects that would have been presented to my notice."

Fanny's first poem, written when she was eight years old, reflects the perspective that was hers until her death at the age of ninety-five;

Oh, what a happy child I am,

Although I cannot see!

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How man blessings I enjoy

That other people don't!

So weep or sign because I'm blind,

I cannot, nor I won't!

 

For over a century, the Church has reaped the rich benefits of one woman's thankful heart, as we sing "To God Be the Glory," "Blessed Assurance," "Redeemed," "All the Way My Saviour Leads Me," and countless others of the 8000 songs that Fanny Cosby wrote in her lifetime.  

 

In a world that has forgotten how to be grateful, the example of this beloved, blind hymn-writer seems extraordinary, if not downright odd!

 

But, oh, what a price we pay for our personal and collective ingratitude. After more than two decades of ministry to hurting people, I have come to believe that a failure to give thanks is at the heart of much, if not most, of the sense of gloom, despair, and despondency that is so pervasive even among believers today.

 

Furthermore, many of the sins that are plaguing and devastating our society can be traced back to the oft-undetected root of unthankfulness.

 

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Be sure and come back next week as we continue with this book. :O)