(A great lesson:GRATITUDE. A marvellous lesson for all of us...Thanks from "New World)
RISE AND SHINE CHRISTIAN SERVICES
April 28, 2009
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Isa 41:15
Gratitude
In order to have a grateful heart you must learn to be grateful for flawed people and imperfect gifts. Be grateful when your child attempts to make the bed, even though they make it imperfectly. Be grateful when your spouse expresses affection, even if they do it awkwardly. Be grateful that your body still moves around, even if it's more wrinkled and lumpy. Don't wait to feel thankful. The thinking and the doing - leads to the feeling. "Give thanks in all circumstances" calls for a decision and an act of your will, not an emotional response. It's why Americans call their annual holiday Thanksgiving - not Thanks feeling.
James Dodson wrote a moving book called Final Rounds, in which he talks about the last months of his father's life. They were both avid golfers, and when his father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness James took him to Scotland so they could play golf together at some of the world's most celebrated courses. At one point James's dad asked him about his marriage and family. James's answer was evasive; he was so consumed by his work that there was little time left over. These were the words of a dying father to his son: "I wish I could slow you both down... The danger of great ambition is that you work so hard, you may some day wake up and find that the things you really wanted were the things you had all along."
Paul writes, "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" Eph 5:14. Every once in a while we do wake up. And when we do, what we wake up to is gratitude for the things we take for granted.
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