Attitude of Gratitude
I felt my patience evaporating like steam as my seven-year-old daughter whined loudly. “Moooom! I don’t want to eat that!”
Three times every day, I present a meal for my children. Sometimes they think there should be many, many more snacks in between these meals then what I care to offer. Often when I offer them the fruits of my labor (or vegetables, or chicken, etc.) there is one of two responses: “Yay! I love (insert food here)!” Or: “EEEW! I don’t like that!”
I know my children must be raised to learn to eat foods they do not like and they have to learn how to obey and be polite.
But I am struck at how I want to teach them something more than good manners or silent obedience.
I want to give them a gift that will nurture their hearts forever. I want to teach them the key to joy.
I want them to posses an attitude of gratitude.
As I sit writing this, I am sorely aware of how that teaching comes not from my telling them to be grateful, but by showing them how to be grateful by example.
How often do I reveal a lack of gratitude? I would never say aloud “I am ungrateful.” Yet my actions speak louder than my words. I consider the times when I felt compelled to have more: more food, more, clothes, more books, more time, more attention, more for me.
More, more, more. The constant droning of our society, our world, our flesh. The constant cry of people throughout time is, “I do not have enough! Give me more!”
This craving need for more is in all of us. And the good news is, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.
Only we often are craving the things that will not really fill us.
WE WERE MADE TO CRAVE.
But it isn’t about what we crave, but WHO.
God. Jesus. The Holy Spirit.
The Great I AM THAT I AM.
I AM is more than enough to fill all our cravings. Because ultimately all our desires point back to one thing - we need something to fill us; we need an identity, a purpose, love, comfort, security, beauty, pleasure, delight. We need more than this world could ever offer. We need God and nothing less can suffice.
All we need is offered to us by God through Jesus Christ.
What if we really believed this truth - the truth that all we need for life, love, happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, in the culmination of who we truly are - it is all found and given freely through Jesus?
How would our hearts respond?
Hearts responding in awe, in trembling, in hope, faith, trust, joy, love, affection, praise.
In a word: gratitude. Also called Thanks giving.
We would give in response to the gift given - we would give Thanks.
We would be free to enjoy all that we are given and free to give away all that we posses.
We would be unhindered and free from the “What if?” and “I don’t have enough.”
We would be free to give thanks, free to have an attitude of gratitude.
Free to rely on an eternal joy that will never perish.
We would be able to experience what life is really about, and give that life-transforming truth away, knowing we are richer for giving than getting.
Oh how I long to grow and attain this freedom of simplicity, generosity, and fulfillment in Christ alone! I am nowhere near there, and yet, the Author and Perfector of my faith is working diligently to continue to transform my heart into one of unencumbered praise and thanksgiving.
You see, He is preparing us for our glorious homecoming. For our true home in eternity when we revel in His Presence, worshipping Him unceasingly. With self-abandonment, we will find our self-fulfillment; in His Spirit, our soul will soar in purest ecstasy; for it is for Him, in Him and by Him that we were created, and it is in Him alone that we can brought into our soul’s magnificent purpose.
This Thanksgiving I am looking to what I have been given; not only here on earth, but the gift of eternity that enlightens my soul.
No matter who you are, where you are, what you have, what you don’t have - you have been offered the gift of life, eternal life, from God through His Son Jesus.
Because He loves you. He loves you personally. He loves you deeply. His love for you will never fade, will never fail, and will never end. His gift to you is His Heart. God seeks your heart. His desire is for your heart’s affections, your heart’s passions, your heart’s dreams, desires and hopes to all be placed in Him alone.
Love starts in a simple place. Love starts with acknowledgement. Acknowledgement of what He has already given you. Then acceptance; accepting the gift of His love, His life He gave for you, His righteousness that He drapes over you like a robe. Acceptance of His gift naturally brings hope, joy and peace. As our soul soars in these Divine gifts, affections grow within us; affections of gratitude, praise and love.
My prayer this year is that I would not simply say thanks, but that I would live a life of loving thanks, worshipful praise, and endless hope, and share this beauteous truth with everyone I can.
My heart is overflowing with gratitude for all God has given me- temporal and eternal.I am grateful for my children, these two glorious souls that I have been entrusted to teach, care for and love. I am humbled that God appoints me to be the one to teach them about His love. I have the great privilege to teach their hearts the key to true joy, love and life: Jesus. I have the honor of showing them how to worship, how to live an attitude of gratitude. I can never be worthy of these gifts, but I can be thankful for them!
Gratitude starts with an attitude. Our attitudes are formed within our hearts.
Where is your heart today? Where are your affections and cravings? In what way can you turn to the Lord and ask Him to fill you with thanksgiving today?
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:3-9
In celebration of Giving Thanks I am offering a special on my books!
$4 off each of my books at the ESpace Store!
For one week only (11/27/2013 through 12/03/2013)
Here’s the code: 98GE25TR
(This code will only work at my ESpace Store!)
Please go here to buy Dawn of Hope:
https://www.createspace.com/4536207
Please go here to buy The Princess Within: https://www.createspace.com/4055155
