An Attitude of Gratitude

It’s beginning to simmer. Do you feel it? The start of the holiday season and its hectic demand on our time. Already feeling pulled in three different directions at once, something has to give. Unfortunately what gives is my peace. I need to find it and get it back.

With so much vying for our time, how can we find a moment to cultivate peace? A moment is really all it takes. Just a moment to say thank you, to realize gratefulness in the simplest of things.

Turn on the faucet, and clear, fresh water streams out. Not everyone in the world has this luxury, so be thankful. The frig is so full of food for the holiday that it’s truly crammed. Oh, so much food to be thankful for!

My sons are home and my house is full, even if only for a couple of days. The two middle boys, now young men, still have the job of peeling potatoes for the holiday meal. What joy to have these six foot plus giants in my kitchen, when I remember them hanging on my legs in the days before they cast such a big shadow .

The pressure to make it all perfect has to give way to the joy of the moment. Savor it, for it will soon be gone to yesterday and the moment is gone. Take the time to look each one in the eye, and find out where they truly are in life today. Laugh and joke, and love.

Each day holds hundreds of opportunities to cultivate a grateful heart. Why is it easy to only see what needs fixing and mope or complain about what we can’t have? The best ‘fix’ may be an attitude of gratitude.

Finding opportunities in the everyday to be thankful, truly grateful, focuses attention on the positive instead of belaboring the negative.

As we gather to share hearth and home, and a feast that could feed a small village, I pray that the moments of gratefulness we share as we indulge in our meal and our fellowship will carry into the days that follow.

My prayer is for God to open my eyes to the littlest of gifts, those that might otherwise go unnoticed, and cause me to pause and give thanks for these moments in life. It really is the little things that make up a life of gratitude. And saying thanks is a prayer of praise worthy of our humble hearts.

Blessings to all, in the spirit of the season. May your lives be blessed with fruitfulness, and may you grow in appreciation for the little things that bring joy and appreciation for the moments in which we live.

Garden of Hope

Our spring lawns, once lush and green, were crunching under our feet. The fields of endless rows of corn displayed drying husks months too soon. Though we have received some respite with the recent thunderstorms, it will take more than a few showers to restore all the plants, and some, including crops, may be beyond remedy.

These pictures are from my gardens, which I have maintained throughout the drought by daily watering. Though time-consuming, this was very important to me, because watching my gardens grow brings me joy and hope. I would suffer along with my plants if I allowed them to whither and die.

This tiny portion of earth that I have kept watered has kept my hope alive that life will be restored in the parched areas of the Midwest and beyond. This drought has left many shrubs crispy and brown, and trees have languished with the lack of moisture. I shudder to think of the farmers who depend on their crops as their livelihood, wondering if there will be any crops at all to harvest.

Thankfully rains, sometimes in the form of storms and torrential downpours, including hail and high winds have scattered over our parched land here in Southeastern Wisconsin, bringing respite to the plants and hope to the farmers.

Amidst the despair of watching so many plants succumb to the drought, these bright gardens of mine have given me hope that life will be restored once again.

This awful drought in the season of what is normally a thriving growth period has reminded me of winter, when all hope can be lost of seeing the natural world spring back to life. We wait anxiously hoping for life to be restored.

There are times in our personal lives, too, where seasons of drought or deep winter affect how we find hope in our lives, yet we need to have hope to believe in new beginnings.

One way to begin finding hope is to be grateful for what we have instead of bemoaning what we do not have. It is helpful to make a daily list of what you are thankful for. Make this a habit. It can be little things, simple things, things that bring you joy.

When we begin to focus on what is good in our lives, we find the strength to make it through the challenging times. Daily keeping our focus on God, who provides all we need, and offering thanks to Him for the goodness in our lives, helps to keep our thoughts more positive. This, in turn, kindles our hope for better tomorrows.

We believe in the goodness that life can bring. Though we must suffer through storms of life and difficult times when we feel our hearts will break, if we an can focus on what is good and true, offering thanks and truly feeling grateful, we can weather whatever comes our way, whether it be drought or storm.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy —think about such things."  Phillipians 4:8 (NIV)

Hope from a Chance Encounter

Have you ever had a chance meeting with someone, and afterward knew in your heart that God had placed that person in your path?

I was walking through the main hallway at church during services. No one else was around when I ran into him, a friend I knew from church. A friend, I knew, who was dealing with a deadly disease, just as I was.

He had found so many healthful ways to improve his lifestyle and health through the practice of yoga and eating well. I wanted to know this wellness, and use it for the battle I was facing. I wanted to use healthful choices instead of drugs, and I was uncertain of following the doctor’s path of medication and treatments.

But this friend got my attention and made me listen. He told me that the healthful choices would be good for me, but first I had to use everything in my power to stop the disease. He knew the aggressiveness of the enemy battling inside me. He helped me to understand that I had to first use all of my arsenal to stop the progress of the disease. Then, I could choose healthful ways for my lifestyle that would improve my overall quality of life and health going forward.

In hindsight, I know God put my friend in my path that day. I had difficult decisions to make and I needed to talk to someone even though I had not realized it. God placed me in the hallway at the precise time to run into my friend, and equipped him with the words I needed to hear.

Sometimes it just happens that way.

Just the other week I was at church, in the same main hallway on a weekday, and ran into a dear friend whom I haven’t seen in awhile. We chatted about many things, and then the conversation turned more serious. I shared with her about issues that were tucked away in my heart, and I cried and we embraced and the encounter was so incredibly meaningful and helpful to me. I hope it was for her, too. And I know God placed us in the same place on that day for a reason, to be there for each other.

Some may say things happen for a reason. Some are as assured of coincidental happenings as others are of fate. I know the feeling I have after sharing time with an amazing person who takes the time to really hear me. It is a gift. I feel renewal and connectedness, and go forward with gratefulness that I have been given the gift of friendship.

I can only hope that I have been that person for someone else when they needed a friend. The gift of ourselves is the sweetest present we can give. Sharing our time, and a little bit of our heart, spreads God’s love beyond ourselves.

As someone receives our gift of love, they will know His peace, and be ready to go forward to share love with someone else. In this way we fulfill the destiny of human kind. We never know how far a kindness will reach, and sometimes, that kindness is given to us. And that is truly a reason to be thankful.